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New Hijab emoji leaves Twitterati fuming

  • You now get a new hijab emoji, thanks to a 15-year old girl. 
  • She wanted an emoji that would represent her.
  • It was announced with several other new emojis.
Hijab emoji sparks

Rayouf Alhumedhi, 15-year old girl from Saudi was creating a new WhatsApp group with her friends and wanted the title of the group to have one emoji representing each girl. However, Rayouf realised that none of the emojis really looked like her, because she’s Muslim, and wears a hijab. 

She is a high school student living in Berlin, Germany, where she has been living since 2012.  She soon submitted an emoji proposal, when she saw a story on Snapchat explaining how to submit it. And, there began the hijab emoji journey. The emoji means a representation for a 15-year old who was simply looking for an emoji of herself, but looks like some Twitterati have began ranting how it also represents women oppression. 

 

Celebrating the World Emoji day, Apple shared the new emojis that are coming to iOS, macOS and watchOS. These include Woman with Headscarf, Bearded Person and Breastfeeding, and food items such as Sandwich and Coconut. More animals and mythical creatures like T-Rex, Zebra, Zombie and Elf are a fun way to describe situations and new Star-Struck and Exploding Head smiley faces. However, it is just the hijab emoji that  has caused a stir and a few Twitterati are fuming. Here are some tweets:

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