SASS is prepending unicode content with backslash (\)
<h1>Problem</h1>

<p>I'm trying to produce some unicode characters after compiling my *.scss file.</p>

<p>As an example, I have the following (SCSS):</p>

<pre><code>.element:after {
    content: "\a0";
}
</code></pre>

<p>When the file is compiled, it outputs the following (CSS):</p>

<pre><code>.element:after {
    content: "\\a0";
}
</code></pre>

<p><em>Notice the extra unwanted backslash (\).</em></p>

<h2>Attempted Solution #1</h2>

<p>I did try the solution here: <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30421570">Sass: unicode escape is not preserved in .css file</a>, which suggests introducing the following function:</p>

<pre><code>@function unicode($str) {
    @return unquote("\"")+unquote(str-insert($str, "\\", 1))+unquote("\"")
}
</code></pre>

<p>And using it like so (SCSS):</p>

<pre><code>.element:after {
    content: unicode("a0");
}
</code></pre>

<p>However, this produces the following (CSS)</p>

<pre><code>.element:after {
    content: "\\" ")+unquote(str-insert($str, " \\\\ ", 1))+unquote(" \\ ""; 
}
</code></pre>

<p><em>Notice, it's not even invoking the function as intended. Why is that?</em></p>

<h1>Project Details</h1>

<p>I'm using these libraries in Maven:</p>

<pre><code>&lt;dependency&gt;
    &lt;groupId&gt;net.jawr&lt;/groupId&gt;
    &lt;artifactId&gt;jawr-core&lt;/artifactId&gt;
    &lt;version&gt;3.9&lt;/version&gt;
&lt;/dependency&gt;

&lt;dependency&gt;
    &lt;groupId&gt;net.jawr.extensions&lt;/groupId&gt;
    &lt;artifactId&gt;jawr-spring-extension&lt;/artifactId&gt;
    &lt;version&gt;3.9&lt;/version&gt;
&lt;/dependency&gt;

&lt;dependency&gt;
    &lt;groupId&gt;com.darrinholst&lt;/groupId&gt;
    &lt;artifactId&gt;sass-java-gems&lt;/artifactId&gt;
    &lt;version&gt;3.4.20.0&lt;/version&gt;
&lt;/dependency&gt;

&lt;dependency&gt;
    &lt;groupId&gt;org.jruby&lt;/groupId&gt;
    &lt;artifactId&gt;jruby-core&lt;/artifactId&gt;
    &lt;version&gt;9.1.5.0&lt;/version&gt;
&lt;/dependency&gt;

&lt;dependency&gt;
    &lt;groupId&gt;org.jruby&lt;/groupId&gt;
    &lt;artifactId&gt;jruby-stdlib&lt;/artifactId&gt;
    &lt;version&gt;9.1.5.0&lt;/version&gt;
&lt;/dependency&gt;
</code></pre>

<h1>Temporary solution</h1>

<p>Don't use unicodes in SCSS. Instead, use Font Awesome in the HTML (keeping Font Awesome in a CSS file).</p>