Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan has made uncomplimentary remarks about female footballers saying they are “flat-chested” and unattractive for marriage.
Hassan made this remark at state event last Sunday to celebrate Tanzanian U-23 men’s team in the coastal city of Dar-es-Salaam.
“To those athletes who are flat-chested, one can easily think that they are men.
It is unfortunate that there is no hope of marriage life for some of these athletes, marriage is like a dream for them. If one of you was to pick one of the athletes and take her home as a wife to meet your parents, I am sure your mother would be surprised and confused as to whether it’s a woman or a man,” the president said.
Elsewhere in her speech, she emphasized the need to increase funding for the country’s athletes, especially sportswomen and looking after them in retirement.
However,a video of Hassan’s speech, which was delivered in Swahili, sparked outrage after it was widely shared on social media.
Up till now the presidency has not issued any statement in defence of what the president said last Sunday, however, senior players of Tanzania’s national women’s team ‘Twiga Stars,’ said at a press conference Thursday that she had been misinterpreted.
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“There is a statement that the president had spoken about, and people interpreted it in different ways,” one player said.
“The president’s statement gave us, the players, a lot of strength and encouragement, which made us to work very hard in sports. We have not seen anything with that statement.”
Another player stated women footballers in the country are not bothered by their physical looks.
“We are beautiful, we are wonderful like other women, and we also plan to be mothers someday. The question about appearance on our side is not something that really matters to us… The game we play needs a lot of strength. We will not stop doing exercising to build our muscles and strengths to reach our goals,” the player, who was not named, said.
