Meet Rayouf Alhumedhi, The Saudi Teen Behind The Hijab Emoji

In 2016, Rayouf Alhumedi, a 15-year-old student created the Hijab emoji that represents millions of Muslim women across the world.

Rayouf Alhumedhi, a student in Berlin, Germany, was attempting to start a WhatsApp group chat with her friends when she discovered something crucial was missing.

Her friends opted to use an emoji that represented them as a title for their group chat. Her friends made use of emoticons of their complexion and hair hues. This wasn't so simple for Alhumedhi because she covers her head with a hijab. Despite having alternative emojis such as turbans, detective fedoras, police officer caps, and cheery red Santa hats, there was no alternative to the conventional headscarf worn by millions of Muslim women worldwide.

Rayouf Alhumedhi, the girl behind "Hijab Emoji"

As a result, she intervened herself.

Alhumedhi, who was unsure of what to do, sent a lengthy email to Apple's customer service but received no response. After a few months, she ran across an explanation of the Unicode Consortium on Mashable, the technical body that controls the development of emojis and manages new suggestions.

And soon she garnered support. Alhumedhi was put in touch with Aphee Messer, who collaborated with the youngster to create the emoji, by Jennifer 8. Lee, a member of the Unicode emoji subcommittee.

The proposal grabbed the attention of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who has funded it and is assisting Alhumedhi in hosting a Reddit AMA to solicit support for the prospective emoji. Although many individuals expressed support, some said that the emoji was superfluous and contributed to patriarchal structures that oppressed women.

In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Alhumedhi said, “Five hundred and fifty million women pride themselves in wearing a headscarf — and it’s not just Muslims, but Orthodox Jews and Christians, too. That there could be something to represent them — that this image could be given to people all around the world — it’s incredible if I could be the person to help do that."

Hijab Emoji in Apple

In 2017, on World Emoticon Day, Apple announced a new collection of emojis to be used in its iOS, macOS and watchOS platforms which also included Alhumedhi's proposal of the "Hijab Emoji🧕"

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"I'm really happy with what it looks like. I saw so many ideas, different colours 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,’ said Alhumedhi in an interview with CNN.

In 2017, Alhumedhi has made Time‘s list of the 30 most influential teens in the world.

She told CNN, "I wanted to be represented, as simple as that. I just wanted an emoji of me."