Hijab emoji approved by Unicode

New emoji depicting characters wearing hijabs, breastfeeding and with beards have been proposed for use by mobile phone makers, reflecting a growing diversity in the colourful icons.

The new emoji are likely to arrive on smartphones next year after Unicode, the international consortium that set their global standards, proposed the 51 icons. It will take the total number of the cartoon images, which are increasingly being used to replace words in text messages, to 1,724.

Rayouf Alhumedhi, a 15-year-old from Germany had campaigned for the inclusion of the character wearing a hijab emoji, proposing it to Unicode after realising there was no emoji to represent her.