Nazar Amulet Emoji

A concentric blue and white glass bead with a dark pupil in the center, designed to look like a watchful eye. This is a nazar boncuğu), the Turkish "evil eye bead," and it's one of the oldest continuously used protective symbols on Earth. Archaeological evidence of eye-shaped amulets dates back roughly 5,000 years to Tell Brak in modern-day Syria, and glass bead versions have been found across Mesopotamia, Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece, and the Roman Empire from as early as the 16th century BCE.

The belief behind it is specific: certain people can cast misfortune through an envious or malicious gaze (the "evil eye"), and the nazar deflects that gaze back. The blue color comes from cobalt, which was believed to hold strong protective power. When a nazar bead cracks or shatters, it means it absorbed a curse meant for you and needs to be replaced, not repaired. It's a single-use shield.

Emojipedia describes it as commonly used to represent "eyes, various senses of charms, envy and jealousy, and Turkey and Turkish culture." But the emoji has taken on a broader life. On social media, 🧿 is shorthand for "protection from bad vibes," used by people who may know nothing about its Turkish origins. It appears in Instagram bios, Twitter display names, and TikTok captions as a digital ward against jealousy and negativity. Twitter/X actually blocks 🧿 from display names because the blue circle was being confused with the verification checkmark.

🧿 has split into two distinct user bases. The first is people from cultures where the evil eye belief is active: Turkish, Greek, Arab, South Asian, and Balkan communities who use 🧿 with the same sincerity they'd use when hanging a real nazar above their door. For them, posting "got the job 🧿" or "baby is healthy 🧿" isn't decoration. It's a reflexive act of protection against envy, the same way someone might knock on wood.

The second user base is the Gen Z spiritual-aesthetic crowd. Since roughly 2020, evil eye jewelry became a fashion trend pushed by celebrities like Gigi Hadid, Kim Kardashian, and Kendall Jenner. The 🧿 emoji followed the jewelry trend into Instagram bios and TikTok captions. For this group, 🧿 sits alongside crystals, tarot, and astrology as part of a broader "spiritual but make it aesthetic" identity. The Michigan Daily wrote about the tension between treating the evil eye as a cultural emblem versus a fashion fad.

In emoji combos, 🧿 pairs with 🪬 (Hamsa Hand) for double protection, with ✨ for spiritual vibes, and with 🧿🧿🧿 triple-stacked for maximum warding energy. On Instagram, it's popular in highlight cover aesthetics and bio sections. On WhatsApp in Middle Eastern and South Asian communities, it's sent after sharing good news as casually as Americans say "knock on wood."

The nazar's journey from ancient amulet to emoji began with Anshuman Pandey, a linguist at UC Berkeley's Department of Linguistics who specialized in encoding historical and cultural scripts into Unicode. In November 2015, Pandey submitted proposal L2/15-315 to encode the nazar symbol, arguing it was "used as an emblem of protection against the 'evil eye'" across Turkey, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and Iran. He submitted it alongside L2/15-309, a proposal for the Hamsa hand, deliberately bringing two of the Mediterranean world's most important protective symbols into Unicode in the same batch.

The proposal described the nazar's four-layer structure: a dark blue outer circle, a white inner circle, a light blue circle inside that, and a black center dot. It traced the symbol's use from Ottoman-era glass bead workshops in Izmir and Anatolia through to modern Turkish daily life, where nazar beads hang above doors, dangle from rearview mirrors, and are pinned to newborns' clothing.

The nazar was approved for Unicode 11.0 / Emoji 11.0 in 2018. The symbol behind it, though, has been in continuous use for at least five millennia. Archaeologists found the earliest eye amulets at Tell Brak in modern-day Syria, carved from gypsum alabaster and dating to approximately 3,300 BCE. Glass bead versions appeared across the ancient Mediterranean by the 16th century BCE. The Pew Research Center's 2012 survey found that belief in the evil eye remains strong in the modern Muslim world: 90% of Tunisians and 80% of Moroccans reported believing in the evil eye's power.

The emoji arrived into a moment when the evil eye was experiencing a Western fashion boom. Gigi Hadid, Kim Kardashian, and Kendall Jenner were photographed wearing evil eye jewelry, and the symbol appeared on everything from bathmats to sweaters. This triggered a cultural appropriation debate about whether wearing the nazar as an accessory without understanding its protective function was disrespectful. The emoji itself landed in the middle of this conversation.

1. 2015Anshuman Pandey (UC Berkeley) submits proposal L2/15-315 to Unicode for the Nazar symbol↗
2. 2017Evil eye emoji proposal L2/17-058 moves the symbol toward Emoji 11.0↗
3. 2018Approved in Unicode 11.0 / Emoji 11.0 as Nazar Amulet (U+1F9FF)↗

The evil eye belief spans dozens of countries and multiple religions, but the relationship to the nazar specifically varies. In Turkey, the nazar boncuğu is everywhere: above doorways, in cars, on babies, in shops. It's as casual as a welcome mat. Turks who don't consider themselves superstitious still use it as a cultural marker.

In Greece, the equivalent symbol is called the máti ("eye"), and belief in the evil eye (matiasma) involves specific rituals: certain people (usually older women) can diagnose and cure the evil eye through prayer and olive oil in water. The emoji maps to this tradition but doesn't capture the ritual dimension.

In South Asian cultures (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), the evil eye is called "nazar" in Hindi/Urdu and "drishti" in Tamil. Parents commonly apply a black dot (kala tikka) to a baby's forehead or behind the ear to ward off envious looks. The 🧿 emoji is used by South Asian diaspora communities on WhatsApp alongside traditional practices.

In the Arab world, the evil eye is called al-ayn (العين) and belief is strong. The 2012 Pew Research Center survey found 90% of Tunisians and 80% of Moroccans believe in the evil eye. The saying "Mashallah" ("God has willed it") is said when praising something to preempt the evil eye, and 🧿 serves a similar digital function.

The cultural appropriation tension is real. When the evil eye appeared on fast-fashion bathmats and Kardashian jewelry, people from traditions where it's taken seriously pushed back. The argument: if you don't believe the nazar does anything, you shouldn't wear it as an aesthetic accessory. The counter-argument: the symbol's power comes from visibility, and more people wearing it doesn't dilute it.

• •The earliest eye-shaped protective amulets date to approximately 3,300 BCE, found at Tell Brak in modern-day Syria. The nazar emoji represents a symbol that's been in continuous use for roughly 5,000 years.
• •The word "nazar" comes from Arabic naẓar meaning "sight" or "gaze"). In Turkish, the full name is nazar boncuğu ("sight bead") or göz boncuğu ("eye bead").
• •A 2012 Pew Research Center study found that 90% of Tunisians and 80% of Moroccans believe in the evil eye. The belief spans Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
• •The deep blue color of the traditional nazar bead comes from cobalt added during glassmaking, which was believed to hold protective power. Ottoman-era artisans in Izmir and Anatolia developed the glassblowing technique still used today.
• •Twitter/X blocks the 🧿 emoji from display names because the blue circle was confused with the verification checkmark.

• •Using 🧿 as a "cool aesthetic" blue eye in your bio while chatting with a Turkish friend who treats it with genuine cultural weight. What reads as decoration to you may feel like trivialization to them.
• •Putting 🧿 in your Twitter/X display name to look spiritual, only to discover the platform blocks it because it resembles the verification checkmark. Your digital protection became a digital deception.

• •Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik were photographed wearing matching evil eye bracelets, and Kendall Jenner spoke about wearing evil eye jewelry for "protection." The celebrity adoption drove a fashion boom that put the nazar on everything from haute couture to fast-fashion bathmats.
• •The Michigan Daily's cultural appropriation piece on the evil eye asked whether it was a "cultural emblem or fashion fad," framing the debate that followed the symbol's explosion in Western fashion around 2020-2022.
• •The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul has entire shops dedicated to nazar boncuğu beads, making them Turkey's most iconic souvenir. The emoji brought this physical marketplace into the digital world.
• •The National (UAE) published a feature asking "It's now an emoji, but what's the story of the evil eye amulet?" when 🧿 was released in 2018, treating the emoji as a cultural milestone.

• •Codepoint: U+1F9FFU+1F9FF. Part of Unicode 11.0 (2018). Single character, no variation selectors needed.
• •Shortcodes: :nazar_amulet::nazar_amulet: on most platforms. Also :evil_eye::evil_eye: on some custom implementations.
• •Important platform note: Twitter/X blocks this emoji from display names to prevent confusion with the verification checkmark. If your app mirrors X display names, be aware of this restriction.
• •Screen readers announce it as "nazar amulet" on Apple VoiceOver. Some implementations say "evil eye" instead. Consider adding custom aria-labelaria-label if context matters for accessibility.

See the full Emoji Developer Tools guide for regex patterns, encoding helpers, and more.