Headscarf emojis not an option – but teenage girl fixes that

Rayouf Alhumedhi drafts proposal for new options and says not only Muslim women wear a headscarf as it serves as 'an integral aspect of women's lives'

Emojis, the smartphone icons which have been called "the world's fastest growing language", have been diversifying in recent years. But Rayouf Alhumedhi, a 15-year-old student living in Germany, noticed an important figure was still missing from those available - a woman in a headscarf.

The missing emoji became particularly apparent to Alhumedhi, originally of Saudi Arabia, when she was creating a WhatsApp group chat with friends and they each chose an emoji to identify themselves. "My friends, who don't wear the headscarf, they found something." Alhumedhi told the Washington Post. "For me? I had to opt to not use an image of a woman wearing a headscarf. Because there isn't one." She wrote in her proposal that she has worn a hijab since she was 13 years old.