Tanzania’s president Samia Suluhu Hassan is facing condemnation for describing the country’s female footballers as being unattractive for marriage.
While hosting Tanzania’s under-23 men’s football team at State House in the coastal city of Dar es Salaam, the president said that the “female footballers have flat chests and are unattractive for marriage.”
The 61-year-old Suluhu said that while female footballers were making the East African country proud by winning trophies, some did not stand a chance of getting married because of their looks.
“If we bring them here and line them up, for those with flat chests, you might think they are men – not women,” she said.
She went further and explained that marriage was still a dream to most of the Tanzanian sportswomen because of their looks save for a few who were in marriage.
But the comments have earned first Tanzania’s female head of state widespread condemnation espcially from sports lovers and Women Rights activists.
They have taken the debate to Twitter and facebook which platforms they have used to hit back at the president.
“The comment by president @SuluhuSamia on women footballers is a humiliation to all women,” said Catherine Ruge, head of the women’s wing of the opposition Chadema party and a former Member of Parliament.
While gender and mental health researcher @Sajokm said she was “shocked”.
Away from the negative comments on the “unattractive” sportswomen, the president said that sportspeople had tough lives after their careers and asked the authorities to ensure they were looked after in retirement.
To become president, Suluhu replaced John Pombe Magufuli in March this year following his death from heart complications.
