“I wanted something to represent me, alongside the millions of women who wear the headscarf every day, and pride themselves on wearing the headscarf.” Fifteen year-old Ragout Alhumedhi is referring to a new proposal she co-authored which calls for the creation of a hijab emoji.
Miss Alhumedhil, who was born in Saudi Arabia and currently lives in Berlin, says that emojis are the “new language” and stresses the importance for self-identity during digital conversations with friends. “We applaud Unicode for the diversification of emojis in recent years,” the teen wrote in her proposal to Unicode Consortium which approves the popular icons. “However, this does not mean it should stop now. With the amount of difference in this world, we must be represented.”
