AL-MANAL BEGINS ITS 38TH YEAR OF EXISTENCE.
Her Excellency Sheikha Jameela bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Chairperson of Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services (SCHS) and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Manal Electronic Magazine, has confirmed that the high and distinguished position that the magazine held locally and in the Arab world as the second oldest specialized Arab magazine after the “Kuwait Disabled” publication, and its continuity was not a coincidence, but rather a natural and logical outcome. This came through many years of work and commitment to its purposeful mission, and through the efforts made by the editorial board, old, new, and veteran writers, and dedicated volunteers at a specialized level that considers the general trends and vision of the magazine. It is written in a purposeful and accessible language that conveys the voice of people with disabilities throughout the Arab world. It expresses their feelings and needs in a positive way and shows society their abilities and energies, and the correct ways and methods of dealing with them and raising awareness of the causes of disability and how to prevent them by publishing the best and latest scientific and international studies and practices in the field of special education and community development.
The editor-in-chief has written in the editorial of the issue 392 of the magazine, which is 38-year-old now, “This long journey would not have continued without Al-Manal credibility, specialization, and constant selection of newly introduced articles and topics. In addition, there is the generosity of its writers, their purposeful contributions, and their great belief in the vision and message of Al-Manal over the course of these years to transform from paper to electronic in 2012 to ensure expansion, spread, and achieve its lofty goals. Many magazines have stopped publishing, and only a few issues remain”.
Sheikha Jameela clarified that Al-Manal's dedication and zeal made it one of the top search options recommended by the Google search engine for experts and recent graduates. Its frequency rate of 49.5% places it in the excellent index, which is between 30 and 50% according to the global classification, with an estimated 35,000 browsers per month accessing it across 100–141 countries worldwide, as per statistical tracking by Google's analytical website "4Google Analytics."
The magazine, which celebrates its anniversary of publication in May each year, decided to preserve and revive its rich cultural awareness-raising heritage by launching the initiative "Memory of Manal's Ancient History... With you and with you we continue,". The editorial board of Al-Manal believe in the importance of what writers have contributed and have been contributing over the years. Additionally, it is making specialized terminology in the field of disability and the veneration of science and knowledge available to anyone who wishes to view these topics and receive its former issues of paper, spanning from the first issue of May 1987 to issue 260 of March 2012, which precedes its electronic transformation.
The head of SCHS said, “Our quest for sustainability and development did not stop at articles and specialized topics only. Rather, we worked on creating and developing our social media accounts. We are keeping up with and continuously developing them while opening new ways of cooperation and partnerships by signing the Al-Manal content licensing agreement with the distinguished Arab news application “Nabad”, which has 40 million users. Through it, the valuable content of Al-Manal magazine became available to a wide and new segment of readers, all over the world. We have also strengthened ways of cooperation and partnership with AT TODAY magazine to publish the latest research and practices in the field of assistive technologies. In addition to organizing meetings with Foreign influential figures and publish articles in English to reach non-Arabic speaking writers and readers. We launched a Writer Document and Al-Manal Correspondent initiatives to open broad horizons for writing and contributing.
Her Excellency Sheikha Jameela bint Mohammed Al Qasimi concluded by congratulating the friends, writers, and readers of Al Manal on the publication of their prestigious magazine in a new year. As they have always understood it, it is the magazine dedicated to enlightening the Arab family by offering it knowledge, information, training courses, health, and preventive awareness; in addition, it highlights the concerns of women, children, and individuals with disabilities, as well as their parents and the laws pertaining to them.