Muslim girl pays for practising Yoga

Rafiya Naaz, a young Muslim girl from Jharkhand, is facing life threat for practicing yoga— a mind and body practice with a 5,000-year history in ancient Indian philosophy.

Native of Hatia-Ranchi, Rafiya Naaz hogged the headlines after her photos of performing yoga with Baba Ramdev went viral on social media in 2017. This had attracted the ire of few radicals who have issued a fatwa against her for this act. 

As if a fatwa was not enough, a group of extremists created ruckus outside the residence and tried to ransack while she was giving an interview to a leading news channel. The uproar was triggered after a cleric from the locality watched the live telecast.

Four years ago, she was once kidnapped by some radicals who wanted to kill her. She anyhow managed to flee.

Rafiya, who also teaches yoga on-line and runs a campaign Yoga Beyond Religion, started practicing it at the age of 4. So far, he has won 52 medals at the national level in the field of yoga. She believed yoga was connecting the soul with God. It has nothing to do with religion.

She had been under the scanner of radicals. The previous BJP government in Jharkhand provided a full proof security cover to her which the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress alliance government surprisingly withdrew in March.

In June, Rafiya sent a letter to the police chief informing about the regular threat that she was receiving and urged for security. But no action was taken.

In the complaint, she informed that she had been receiving abusive and life threatening messages on her mobile phone and social media profile. She is also being referred to as an RSS agent.

The Human Rights commission and the national commission for women have taken a serious note on the issue. It had served notices to the Jharkhand police seeking explanation.