'Offensive' UN Women's Valentine's Day illustration removed after backlash

The cartoon showed three couples holding hands and hugging, and a lone black woman hugging herself

UN Women sparked backlash with this Valentine's Day illustration posted on Twitter. 

A UN Women's Valentine’s Day illustration on social media has been removed after it was criticised for featuring a range of couples and a single black woman standing alone.

The cartoon, which drew backlash and has since been deleted, showed three couples of various backgrounds holding hands and hugging, as well as a lone black woman hugging herself.

Social media users were quick to point out the problematic nature of the drawing:

On Monday, UN Women, the United Nations entity working for the empowerment of women, responded.

“We posted an illustration on Valentine’s Day, depicting love in all its diversity,” they tweeted. “We listened to what you said in the comments [and] decided to take it down. UN Women works for gender equality [and] empowerment of all women [and] girls regardless of age, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.”

Instead, they uploaded a new gif with multicoloured hearts and the phrase “love is love".

However, not everyone was happy with the response, claiming a better apology was needed.

At the time of writing, UN Women has yet to issue any further statements about the illustration.

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