Lifted ban on pregnant girls in Tanzania.

It has never been more evident than it is now that Tanzania is presided over by a woman. A law passed under the leadership of the late Magafuli in 2002 to ban pregnant school girls from continuing with the school has finally run its course. As a woman myself, I am pleased that young girls will get a second chance at crafting a brighter future for themselves.

Firstly, this law was not solving the root cause of teenage pregnancy. It did not seek to mitigate it but instead frog-leaped to eliminate the effects of this problem. Standardizing the punishment of teen pregnancy was also misjudgment on the part of the then government. The law generalized the causes of teenage pregnancy to teen waywardness, yet there are several reasons for this challenge: young girls could be living with sexually abusive guardians; perhaps they are raped on their way to school, or maybe they are made sex slaves on weekends.

Secondly, it takes two to tango. Were the men responsible for impregnating young girls taken to task? For every pregnant girl chased from school, there should have been a man who also suffered the consequences of impregnating her. That’s another loophole.

There is a better way of protecting other young girls from falling into the trap of teenage pregnancy than doing it at the cost of another girl child’s future.

Congratulations to Tanzania! This unbanning must reduce teen depression considerably.