“Flat-chested athletes can easily be thought of as men,” Hassan had said at a state event last Sunday to celebrate Tanzania’s under-23 men’s team in the coastal city of Dar-es-Salaam.
“” It is unfortunate that there is no life expectancy for some of these athletes, marriage is like a dream for them. If one of you chooses one of the athletes and takes her home as a woman to meet your parents, I am sure your mother will be surprised and confused if it is a woman or a man, ”he said. the president.
Elsewhere in his speech, he stressed the need to increase funding for the country’s female athletes, especially female athletes, and care for them in retirement.
A video of Hassan’s speech, delivered in Swahili, sparked outrage after it was widely shared on social media.
Hassan, 61, is the country’s first president to be sworn in after the death of predecessor John Magufuli in March this year.
His reign was promoted to inaugurate a more liberal stance on the often repressive regime of his predecessor.
“President @SuluhuSamia’s comment on women footballers is a humiliation for all women,” said former MP Catherine Ruge, head of the women’s arm of opposition party Chadema.
“Misinterpreted” remarks
The presidency has not commented on the uproar following Hassan’s remarks, however, senior players from Tanzania’s women’s national team “Twiga Stars” said at a news conference on Thursday that it had been misinterpreted.
“There’s a statement that the president had talked about and people interpreted it in different ways,” one player said.
“The president’s statement gave a lot of strength and encouragement to us, the players, which made us work very hard in sports. We haven’t seen anything with that statement.”
Another player claimed that women footballers in the country are not bothered by their physical appearance.
“We are beautiful, we are wonderful like other women and we also think of being mothers someday. The question of the appearance on our side is not something we really care about … The game we play needs a lot of strength. We will not stop exercising to build our muscles and strength to achieve our goals, ”said the player, who was not named.
‘Unfortunate observation’
“These kinds of loud bites from the country’s president, especially the one who is a woman, are easily attacked by sexist and misogynistic people,” Tsehai told CNN.
“It is a very unfortunate observation, considering that she (Hassan) has celebrated in Africa as the first woman president of Tanzania, overcoming the stereotypes and perceptions that people have that a woman cannot be the leader of ‘a country’.
“For her to turn this around and use stereotypes against these women who also break stereotypes … especially in a male-dominated sport like football, is very unfortunate,” she added.