Hijab emoji proposed by Saudi student

BERLIN: A Saudi student based in Germany has proposed designing a head scarf emoji. Rayouf Alhumedhi, 15, has sent a proposal to The Unicode Consortium, a non-profit corporation that reviews and develops new emojis.
The idea gained the backing of the cofounder of online discussion forum Reddit, Alexis Ohanian. If approved, her emoji will be available in 2017, reported BBC.
Alhumedhi said it was during a group chat with her friends on social media that she realized there was no emoji to represent her, a hijabi. After reading an article on emoji design, she wrote an e-mail about her idea to Unicode.
Intrigued, a member of a Unicode subcommittee replied, offering to help her draft a formal proposal.
“In this day and age, representation is extremely important,” she said of her reasons behind the project.
“People want to be acknowledged... and recognized, especially in the tech world. Emojis are everywhere.
“There are so many Muslim women who wear the head scarf. 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.”
To boost support for the initiative, Ohanian hosted a Reddit live online discussion on Tuesday where Reddit users could ask Alhumedhi about the new idea.
Some wanted to see whether they could get involved while others questioned the need for the hijab, saying it was a tool to oppress women.
The drafting committee hopes to present a final version of the proposal to Unicode in November.