Unicode, the consortium of major tech companies, which approves emojis has just approved the addition of 56 new emojis including hijab emoji, breastfeeding emoji, gender inclusive child/adult emoji among others.
Several people had been demanding a wider cultural representation in emojis, and the addition of the woman in the hijab is being hailed as a sign of diversity.
The campaign to include a hijab emoji was started by 15-year-old Rayouf Alhumedhi from Germany. In addition to that, there are other new emojis too, such as a vomiting head, bearded man, older persons among others.
To get Unicode to recognize a new emoji, sponsors need to design and submit the proposal with Unicode Consortium, where officials decide whether it goes on to become a new emoji or not. Once the emoji is approved, it is up for sale to ‘platform vendors’ such as Apple, Android etc.
Apple had recently updated its emoji keyboard to feature more women at work and women in sports emojis, as well as introducing skin tone variations to increase inclusiveness.
The new emojis will be launched in 2017.
Feature Image Source: Twitter