Campaign calls for emoji for women who wear scarves

Campaign calls for emoji for women who wear scarves ,

Emoji have become increasingly diversified over the years, but a group is not shown on a smartphone keyboards: women in head scarves. A new campaign aims to change that.

In a proposal released this week, 15-year-old Rayouf Alhumedhi called the Unicode Consortium to add emoji of a woman wearing a headscarf, noting that nearly 550 million Muslim women wear garment known as a hijab, and women of other religious backgrounds cover their hair, as well. The proposed Alhumedhi was co-written by journalist Jennifer 8. Lee and Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, co.

"In the era of digitization, the images turn out to be a crucial element in communication," the proposal bed "Approximately 550 million Muslim women on this earth are proud to wear the hijab. With this huge number of people, not a single keyboard space is reserved for them. "

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Alhumedhi brand campaign last effort to expand the range of emoji to better represent women and minorities. in May, a group of former Google employees created a set of 13 emoji showing women in a range of professions, which they said would highlight "the diversity of careers and daughters of women's empowerment around the world." Unicode introduced emoji with a wider range of skin tones in 2015, and 10 iOS update from Apple includes female athletes and single parent families.

Muslim fashion has been the center of an ongoing debate in Europe this summer after several cities in France have banned the entire body burkini swimsuit. Supporters of the French prohibitions argued that the burkini violate the country's laws on secularism, with leading politicians describing the garment as a form of women "slavery"; but critics have seen as sexist and Islamophobic bans, saying they no longer stigmatize Muslim women. the highest court in France has canceled the ban on a town last month.

Similar debates on Muslim headwear played in Germany, where Alhumedhi lives. In a Reddit AMA held on Wednesday, Alhumedhi defended his decision to wear the hijab and responded to critics who consider clothing as a form of oppression.

"I would like to be represented and recognized," wrote Alhumedhi. "It may seem confusing, but when I wear the scarf I feel actually released because I am in control of what I want to cover. The scarf allows people to see beyond the beauty of a woman and see to his knowledge. "

Alhumedhi present its proposal to the Unicode Consortium in November, New York Times reports. (the proposal also calls for an emoji of a man wearing the keffiyeh, a scarf on the square head.) If approved, the design would be listed as a "emoji candidate" for Unicode 10, which will be announced in June.