Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has caused controversy with her latest comment on women footballers having “flat chests”. In an event on Sunday, she suggested that they would not be attractive candidates for marriage.
Hassan made the comments during a ceremony to celebrate the victory of a national men’s team in a regional football championship on Sunday. Ironically, this is where she also called for better funding for women’s sports.
“For those who have flat chests, you might think they are men and not women,” she said.
“And if you look at their faces you might wonder… because if you want to marry, you want someone who is attractive, a lady who has the qualities that you want.”
She added that for the women footballers “those qualities have disappeared”.
Hassan is the only current serving female head of state in Africa alongside Ethiopia’s President Sahle-Work Zewde. She officially started her term in March, soon after the sudden death of John Magafuli.
“Today they are making us proud as a nation when they bring trophies to the country but if you look at their lives in the future, when the legs are tired from playing, when they don’t have the health to play, what life will they be living?” she said.
“The life of marriage is like a dream to them. Because even if one of you here takes them home as your wife, your mother will ask if they are a woman or a fellow man,” she continued.
She received flak for her comments on the internet, with many ridiculing her stand on the subject.
“The comment by president @SuluhuSamia on women footballers is a humiliation to all women,” said Catherine Ruge, the head of the women’s wing of the opposition Chadema party and a former MP.
“All women deserve respect.”
Maria Sarungi, the founder of civil society group Change Tanzania, shared similar views and tweeted, “So all those cheering a female presidency…@SuluhuSamia is denigrating female football players for having ‘flat chests’ and thus lacking attractive features necessary to get married. You must be proud @AWLNetwork.”
