In a landmark moment, a gay magazine is being published in Arabic and will be available across the Middle East.

My Kali, the region’s first LGBTI-inclusive online magazine, has only ever been published in English. For the first time in its nine year history, they will be publishing an English and Arabic double cover for their new issue.

Featuring Jordanian female martial arts fighter Yara Kakish, it will be the first time LGBTI readers who can only speak Arabic will be able to read the magazine.

Khalid Abdel-Hadi, the founder of My Kali, said when they first started to write for LGBTI people in the Middle East, doing so in English would keep them safer from extremists in predominantly-Arabic countries.

‘When we first launched in October 2007, we decided to only publish in English due to the sensitivity of the topics that the magazine handled, and because we believed that running it in English for a while would keep us under the radar for safety reasons,’ he said in a statement to Gay Star News.

‘However, within a short period of time, the webzine reached prominence and people became aware of its existence. Throughout the years, many readers have asked us to publish in Arabic, commenting that as one of the first LGBT+ publications in the MENA region, the magazine’s language didn’t reflect the geography it represented nor was it fair for Arabic speakers who couldn’t read our content.

‘Now, nearing our 10th anniversary, we’ve decided that we can’t hold back on going bilingual any longer, and as such have began publishing in Arabic. We believe that it’ll be a step forward for the LGBT+ community in the Middle East.’

My Kali Magazine is available to readers in almost all countries in the Middle East and North Africa.