Lily Cole: "I hadn't read the news at the time" criticised for posting image of her wearing a burka.
Model Lily Cole has received backlash after uploading an image of her on Instagram wearing a burka amidst the Afghanistan crisis.
The now deleted image was to promote her new book, Who Cares Wins about climate change to her followers. Since the backlash, Cole has apologised for her insensitivity, by stating on Instagram:
"This week I posted an old photo of me wearing a burqa loaned to me by a friend. As she pointed out I was undermining its original purpose by wearing it with my face exposed, but I understand why the image has upset people and want to sincerely apologise for any offence caused".
Cole continued: "I hadn't read the news at the time I posted so it was incredibly ill-timed (thank you for pointing that out to me)".
Although Cole has apologised since, many are still not impressed about her ignorance from her original post.
In what appears to be a bid to appease her critics, Cole has also shared to her followers what she has been doing to support Afghanistan by saying:
"My heart breaks reading about what is happening in Afghanistan at the moment, and [I]'m looking for organisations who are helping women on the ground that I can support".
"I thought I would share some I found/donated to". Cole then proceeded to share a number of different petitions and organisations to donate money to help those in Afghanistan.