Tuesday, Twitter introduced an Arabic feminine language setting within which users can be addressed with feminine grammar if they so choose. 

According to Twitter, this came as a part of an inclusion and diversity drive.

Twitter’s communications head for the Middle East and North Africa, Rasha Fawakhiri, told Reuters “We want our service to reflect the voices that shape the conversations that take place on our service.”

In Arabic, masculine forms are used to address mixed or unknown individuals and are the default in most texts.

Before the new option, the instruction for the user to Tweet in Arabic had appeared only in the masculine form, which was “gharrid.” However, now this command can appear on Twitter as “gharridi,” which is the feminine form.

Twitter says it is the first social media platform to introduce this option.

“We want to provide people with the option of how they prefer to be addressed,” Fawakhiri said.

Fawakhiri lastly added that Twitter started with Arabic and the initiative could be expanded to other languages.

رحبوا بالعربية (مؤنث)، لغة العرض الجديدة على نسخة الويب من تويتر. #أتحدث_بالمؤنث pic.twitter.com/MQL7qkou2K

— Twitter MENA (@TwitterMENA) June 15, 2021