Jennifer Scharf taught dozens of people yoga for years, and never expected it to end like this.
Scharf taught a class at the University of Ottawa with the support of the schools Centre for Students with Disabilities, but got an email recently telling her the class couldn’t continue for this school year.
After Scharf inquired about a reason--even offering to do it for free--a staff member emailed back a response that has since gone viral.
“Yoga has been under a lot of controversy lately due to how it is being practiced and what practices from what cultures (which are often sacred spiritual practices) they are being taken from,” the e-mail read, according to the Washington Post.
“Many of these cultures are cultures that have experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy, and we need to be mindful of this and how we express ourselves and while practicing yoga.”
“For the moment we would just like to pause the programming also because we are very short on staff and do not have the capacity to do this as programming,” the representative added. “But in the future (after we have reflected on which kinds of exercise are more inclusive for our centre). It is not something that is easy to explain. It is a sensitive topic for some people that use our Centre and I would just like to respect that for the moment.”
Scharf, a yoga teacher at the Rama Lotus Centre, tried to negotiate a change to the class that would allow it to continue, possibly including removing the word yoga, but it didn’t end up working out.
Friends Read Free