Tanzania President disparages women footballers as unattractive, flat chested and looking like men
Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has come under fire following unflattering remarks she made about the country’s female footballers. Hassan described female footballers as having flat chests and as being unattractive candidates for marriage.
The 61-year-old president made the remarks at a ceremony to celebrate the triumph of Tanzania’s Under-23 men’s football team in a regional football championship. Ironically, during the same ceremony which was held at the State House in Dar es Salam, Samia Suluhu Hassan called for better conditions and more funding for female footballers.
Speaking about female footballers in the country, Tanzania’s first female president was very disparaging. She said,
“If we bring them here and line them up, for those with flat-chests, you might think they are men – not women.”
“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 went on to say that it is difficult for female footballers and athletes to get married claiming that some of them look like men.
“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 also called on authorities to look after the welfare of female sportspeople saying that they live very tough lives after retirement.
“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 President was widely condemned over the remarks. Critics said her comments were sexist and humiliating to all women.
President Samia took office in March after the sudden death of her predecessor John Magufuli. She is only one of two current serving female heads of state in Africa alongside Ethiopia’s President Sahle-Work Zewde.
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