Saudi woman to become 1st female referee at Mt. Everest International Yoga Championship

JEDDAH: Mashael Akram Abdulmajeed will on Thursday make history when she becomes the first Saudi woman to referee at the Mt. Everest International Yoga Championship. The second edition of the event has been organized by the Nepal Yoga Association and the International Yoga Sports Federation.

Abdulmajeed was among Saudi Arabia’s first batch of 19 female and two male yogasana referees who graduated in October at an event in Riyadh. Nouf Al-Marwaai, president of the Saudi Yoga Committee, said she was proud that Abdulmajeed would be participating alongside the Saudi team, competing for the first time in an international championship. She noted that considerable planning had gone into helping more Saudis qualify as referees to officiate at local, regional, and international championships.

“With the increasing number of yoga practitioners and professionals in all parts of the Kingdom, there has been an urgent need to equip national cadres of male and female referees to supervise the arbitration of local championships. “To achieve this goal, the Saudi Yoga Committee hosted experts from the Asian Yoga Federation to qualify young cadres of both sexes through training courses. Intensive training for referees,” Al-Marwaai added.