A 15-year-old Saudi girl living in Germany has written to the The Unicode Consortium, the company which designs Apple’s emojis, demanding that the company introduce an emoji of a woman wearing an Islamic headscarf.
Rayouf Alhumedhi argued that the headscarf is worn by millions of women and should therefore be introduced to improve the representation of Muslim women.
“People want to be acknowledged and recognised, especially in the tech world. This is massive. Emojis are everywhere,” the girl said.
“There are so many Muslim women in this world who wear the headscarf. It might seem trivial, but it’s different when you see yourself on the keyboard around the world. Once you experience that, it’s really great,” she continued.
The idea was supported by the co-founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian, who decided to host a live online discussion on the platform in order for the girl to receive feedback on her idea.
Other emojis available on Apple devices include the Sikh turban, same-sex parents, and a range of different skin colours.
If the idea receives the approval of Apple, it could be released as early as 2017.
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