This article originally appeared onThe Gateway Punditand was republished with permission.
On Valentine’s Day, the United Nations shared a social media post decrying child marriage.
While the sentiment is important and valid, the organization received an embarrassing community note for the image they used.
They wrote on X, “Every 3 seconds, a girl is married somewhere in the world.”
“Child marriage is a human rights violation that denies girls the chance to reach their full potential.”
“This#ValentinesDay, join@UNFPAin speaking out against this form of gender-based violence.”
The image they used featured a fair-skinned blonde in a wedding dress.
Community Notes called out the image for deliberately misleading the public, noting, “The image in this post is deliberately misleading.”
“Even their own site shows that the vast majority of child marriages happen in countries that are predominantly dark skinned. The use of a white woman with blond hair is a dishonest representation of the problem.”
According to the latest available data from UNICEF, Girls Not Brides (which draws on UNICEF datasets), the countries with the highest rates of child marriage for young girls are predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa, with some in South Asia and elsewhere.
Source: The Vigilant Fox
