Supplementary Reading: Tantra and Arab Bodies

Tantra and Arab Bodies
by Rana Askoul

Rana Askoul is a Tantra practitioner, Reiki healer, and yoga teacher who integrates Arab healing traditions into her work. She is the founder of Nara, a healing space dedicated to the collective healing of the Arab spirit, where she facilitates workshops and individual sessions focused on somatic healing, nervous system regulation, and sacred feminine and masculine integration. Her approach to Tantra is culturally rooted, adapting approach and body-based practices to honor the lived experiences, histories, and spiritual frameworks of Arab communities. Follow her work on: http://www.narabyrana.com or on Instagram: @Ranaaskoul

Rana undertook the Tantra Practitioner Training with EAA in 2024.

Introduction

I was compelled to document this paper to note my experiences with applying tantric principles in my practice. It was critical to highlight the deep differences I witnessed as I engaged with the training material furnished during the Tantra Practitioner Training, and what evolved over the last 16 months of my practice with clients. It is important to note that my client base is overwhelmingly- if not exclusively- Arab, and hailing from regions that have experienced- and
continue to experience- genocides, wars, displacement, dehumanization, significant intergenerational and colonization trauma and unique cultural and historical context that shapes their relationship to Tantra. With this backdrop, I present my notes below.

Section 1: Tantra Protocols

In recent years, Tantra has gained popularity in the Western world as a holistic and spiritual healing practice, encompassing body-based protocols that aim to address trauma, foster emotional release, and cultivate a balanced integration of feminine and masculine energies. Often taught within a structured framework, Tantra if practiced within a strict framework may miss fully accounting for the rich complexity of experiences, cultural beliefs, and physical sensibilities held by non-Western communities. This was especially noticeable to me when examining body based protocols that assume a certain level of ease with bodily expression, sexual energy work, deity work, mantra chanting, and activation protocols in general. As I have sought to introduce some of these concepts to my client base, I quickly recognized how it can alienate individuals who have different relationships with their bodies, their traumas, and their sense of divinity—relationships deeply shaped by cultural as well as current and historical factors.

1. Protocol Gaps for Arab Bodies

In my work as a Tantra practitioner with predominantly Arab communities, I have observed notable limitations within these protocols. Many of my clients carry trauma not only from personal histories but also from shared generational experiences, including war, displacement, and genocide. For Arab individuals, trauma is layered with cultural expectations, religious beliefs, and relational dynamics that the Tantra framework does not fully address.

For example, the protocols might assume a level of bodily openness and comfort with vulnerability that feels natural in Western contexts, or potentially within an Indian / Indian Subcontinent context exposed to Tantric teachings and legacy, but this is not universally applicable. In Arab communities, particularly where religious and cultural narratives around modesty, relationship with the divine, and familial obligations are influential, body comfort and expressions of intimacy can be more guarded. As a result, techniques such as prolonged eye-gazing, open physical expression, shaking, pounding or even deep breathing with sounding, which can be perceived as non-threatening in different contexts, can inadvertently create discomfort or trigger resistance rather than facilitate healing.

2. Impact on Client Healing

This gap of cultural resonance can inhibit healing for clients. Protocols designed without consideration for their unique experiences and values risk reinforcing an internalized sense of displacement or even inferiority. For clients of Arab backgrounds, who may already grapple with intergenerational trauma from colonialism, this disconnect can deepen a sense of alienation from both the practice and their own bodies. In many cases, a strict tantric framework may fail to create a safe and supportive environment that fosters trust, emotional release, or spiritual connection for these individuals.

For practitioners, acknowledging and addressing these limitations is crucial. It requires recognizing the ways in which such a practice may not fully serve those whose cultural frameworks, embodied experiences, and spiritual beliefs do not align with the proposed approach. There is a pressing need to reconsider and adapt these protocols to honor and respect the specific realities of individuals, particularly in communities affected by trauma and complex cultural, religious and historic layers. In doing so, practitioners can ensure that Tantra remains a truly inclusive and healing practice for all.

Section 2: Unique Considerations for Arab Bodied Clients outside Tantra influenced / Tantra exposed cultures

1. Cultural and Religious Sensitivities

Islam, Christianity and regional traditions heavily shape Arab clients’ relationship with their body, sexuality and divinity. The region is rich in heritage and practices that are native to the lands. This layer is further nuanced by the colonization history in the region. This puts Arabs in a position of internalized conflict, a conflict between owning and remembering their heritage while at the same time grappling with the need to protect and ward off against adopting practices foreign to their culture and heritage. Despite the increasing uptake regionally for yoga and breathwork, it still remains at surface level. Moreover, there is serious questioning- and opposition- of adopting foreign practices such as mantra chanting, or deity work that stands in complete opposition to the religious traditions and view of divinity that clients hold individually, and collectively at a societal level.

As a practitioner, this is not a limitation unless one is operating within a strict framework. There exists a great opportunity to use concepts of Tantra and adapt them to embrace healing traditions that are resonant to the region.

2. Body Awareness and Trauma in Arab Communities

Intergenerational trauma from political instability, wars, genocides, persecution, displacement and a long colonial history is evident in Arab bodies. These factors heavily influence body comfort, perception of safety and emotional vulnerability. Even in what appears to be simple practices, such as breathing with sounding, it can prove to be challenging and threatening to clients’ sense of comfort and safety.

A key finding of my work over a 16 month period has proved time and time again that a lot of time needs to be vested in the conversational element of the work, before even approaching the topic of working with the body. I can leverage examples to demonstrate how sounding while breathing can present complexities. Intergenerational trauma surrounding the need to “keep one’s mouth shut” to survive a brutal oppressive regime, or evade the grip of occupation forces, emerge very evidently in my work with clients. Working with female clients adds another layer of complexity bringing gender dynamics, gender-based violence and gender socialization into the picture. A specific female client held a history in her body of a brutal arrest by occupation forces for chanting in a peaceful demonstration against occupation. Working with this specific client on practicing sounding with the breath took 4 sessions of conversations, with prolonged moments of gentle silence and holding the space, and a considerable time gap between sessions.

3. Relational Intricacies

Arab cultural norms around family, community and modestly have a huge influence on how clients express emotions, release trauma and engage with touch and movement. The region is deeply rooted in strong familial bonds, reverence for mother/father, a precedence of community over the individual and a deeply modest approach towards discussing sex based topics. An approach that respects these traditions and honors the value they hold is critical. Coupling this with the ability to hold space for the individual to emerge and allowing time for the integration of both assists in healing in deeper and more meaningful ways.

I can leverage examples to demonstrate this in clearer ways. Most of my Arab clients recognize that their parents endured significant trauma and hardship, from enduring and surviving wars to living through displacement. Despite pains and wounds that might have been inflicted in the course of their upbringing, there remains an internalized conflict in Arab bodies between releasing emotions- for eg. repressed anger and rage- that is targeted against a father/mother, while at the same time holding deep compassion for them for surviving great atrocities. This makes it critical for the practitioner not only to allow time for a more rigorous activation in the body for emotional release, which harms more than helps, but also for holding the space to sit in both spaces: reverence for the mother / father, as well as the underlying rage.

Section 3: Where do I go from here as a Practitioner?

There is an evident need for a culturally responsive Tantra with adapted protocols. I have been engaging in leading activation through culturally resonant practices adapting breathwork and movement by incorporating elements that resonate with Arab culture and realities, allowing more time for building trust emotionally and physically with clients, using folk songs, folk poetry and traditional dancing when available and accessible. I have also tapped into closed-eye practices for enhanced privacy, gentler body-based releases, and incorporating culturally familiar rituals. I have also been very conscious in suggesting ways to respectfully align with client’s spiritual beliefs, which involve reframing Tantra’s concepts of divine union to resonate with Islamic, Chrstian and indigenous understandings of the divine.

In conclusion, I feel that this experience has widely opened my eyes to how critical it is to expand practices to serve diverse cultural groups more effectively, inviting me to continue developing and sharing culturally sensitive adaptations.