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Saudi girl's proposal led to new emoji for hijab-wearing women

Rayouf Alhumedhi came up with the idea when she and her friends were creating a WhatsApp group chat and she could not find an emoji to represent herself.

By Oneindia Staff Writer
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Google Oneindia News

Vienna, July 22: Women who wear hijab now have an emoji to represent them after a 16-year-old Saudi girl's proposed the idea to developers.

Rayouf Alhumedhi who now lives in Vienna had pitched the idea last year to The Unicode Consortium, a non-profit organisation that develops new emojis.

Saudi girl's proposal led to new emoji for hijab-wearing women

Rayouf, who wears a hijab, was surprised that there was no emoji to represent her and other women like her who wear hijab.

"The fact that there wasn't an emoji to represent me and the millions of other hijabi women across the world was baffling to me," the CNN quoted her as saying.

On Monday July 17, which marked World Emoji Day, Apple Inc announced that had accepted the design along with others that include breast-feeding women of all skin colours and much more.

Rayouf is "happier than ever" that the emoji will soon be available. "I'm really happy with how it looks. I saw so many ideas, different colors and styles but I didn't know what it would finally look like. I'm just so excited because it's finally came out after all the work, all the writing."

Alhumedhi saw the new emoji for the first time Monday night when a friend sent her a message linking to a BuzzFeed article. "I got the news just like everybody else!" she said.

She first had the idea in her bedroom in Berlin, where she lived with her family for five years after moving to the German capital from Saudi Arabia.

"My friends and I were creating a group chat on WhatsApp," Alhumedhi told CNN in an interview last year, "and I obviously had no emoji to represent me."

"The fact that there wasn't an emoji to represent me and the millions of other hijabi women across the world was baffling to me," she said. "I really had no initial idea in my mind of what it was supposed to look like, I just wanted it to be available in different skin tones -- millions of women from different races do wear it."

Although many people were supportive, some described the emoji as "unnecessary" and a "part of patriarchal constructs that oppress women."

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, also backed her proposal and hosted an online discussion where Alhumedhi talked about her idea and responded to critics.

And reaction on social media since Monday's announcement has been equally mixed.

OneIndia News

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