{"id":331111,"date":"2017-06-24T06:31:11","date_gmt":"2017-06-24T06:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=331111"},"modified":"2017-06-24T06:31:11","modified_gmt":"2017-06-24T06:31:11","slug":"john-magufulis-pregnant-schoolgirl-ban-angers-tanzanian-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/06\/john-magufulis-pregnant-schoolgirl-ban-angers-tanzanian-women\/","title":{"rendered":"John Magufuli’s pregnant schoolgirl ban angers Tanzanian women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has been condemned for comments that girls who give birth should not be allowed to return to school.<\/p>\n

An online petition has been set up and a pan-African women’s organisation is mobilising to get the president to apologise and reverse his comments.<\/p>\n

Mr Magufuli warned schoolgirls at a rally on Monday that: “After getting pregnant, you are done.”<\/p>\n

A law passed in 2002 allows for the expulsion of pregnant schoolgirls.<\/p>\n

The law says the girls can be expelled and excluded from school for “offences against morality” and “wedlock”.<\/p>\n

Women’s rights groups have recently been urging the government to change the law.<\/p>\n

Mr Magufuli, who was speaking at a public rally in Chalinze town, about 100km west of the main city Dar es Salaam, said that young mothers would be distracted if they were allowed back in school:<\/p>\n

“After calculating some few mathematics, she’d be asking the teacher in the classroom: ‘Let me go out and breastfeed my crying baby.'”<\/p>\n

He said that men who impregnate the schoolgirls should be imprisoned for 30 years and “put the energy they used to impregnate the girl into farming while in jail”.<\/p>\n

\n

‘I was a teenage mother’: Jackie Leonard Lomboma, who runs a centre for teenage mothers in Morogoro<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"Jackie
Image copyrightJACKIE LEONARD LOMBOMA;Jackie Leonard Lomboma with her daughter Rose, aged 15<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

I had just finished my primary education; I was supposed to go to secondary education but could not afford the fees.<\/p>\n

I met this smart boy, who promised that he would ask his parents to help me go to secondary school if I agreed to be with him.<\/p>\n

I didn’t date him, like girlfriend and boyfriend.<\/p>\n

The first time I met him was the first time I got pregnant and that was the last time I saw him.<\/p>\n

Because I was kicked out of school, my grandfather chased me out of home.<\/p>\n

I eventually found work as a maid. When the family left, they asked me what I would like as a goodbye gift.<\/p>\n

I said I wanted to go to school. It was a shock but they eventually agreed.<\/p>\n

It is a big disappointment to hear such a statement from our president. It is only education which can help any country in this world overcome poverty.<\/p>\n

\n

President Magufuli also criticised rights organisations who have been pushing the government to reverse the law:<\/p>\n

“These NGOs should go out and open schools for parents. But they should not force the government [to take back the pupils].<\/p>\n

“I’m giving out free education for students who have really decided to go and study, and now you want me to educate the parents?”<\/p>\n

The BBC’s Sammy Awami in Tanzania reports that the crowd at the rally applauded the president’s comments.<\/p>\n

At least 8,000 Tanzanian girls drop out of school every year due to pregnancy, according to a Human Rights Watch report.<\/p>\n

‘Betrayal’<\/strong><\/p>\n

The online petition says that the president’s support for the expulsion law would end the education of many girls and “propagate more discrimination”.<\/p>\n

It instead calls for the girls to be protected from early pregnancies while in school.<\/p>\n

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network, Femnet has also expressed its outrage.<\/p>\n

“With all the work we have done to emancipate Africa’s girl-child from the shackles of discrimination and violation, a sitting president turns around to “re-victimze” and treat their situation like a terrible infectious disease which other girls must be protected from,” said its head Dinah Musindarwezo.<\/p>\n

Lawyer Kavinya Makau called Mr Magafuli’s sentiments a” betrayal of the highest order.”<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, Tanzania’s Vice-President Samia Suluhu called for young mothers to be readmitted to school, saying they should not be denied a right to education.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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