Tanzania sued for pregnant schoolgirls ban

Women’s rights group, Equality Now, has filed a case against the Tanzanian government at the Africa Court on Human and People’s Rights over its ban on pregnant girls from attending school.

The organisation, in a statement, said that going to court was the last resort after years of lobbying the government to overturn the ban.

The Tanzanian government has not officially responded to the suit.

A law passed in 2002 allows for the expulsion of pregnant schoolgirls.

The law says the girls can be expelled and excluded from school for ‘offences against morality’ and ‘wedlock’.

Women’s rights groups have been urging the government to change the law.

At least 8,000 Tanzanian girls drop out of school every year due to pregnancy, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

Equality Now said the ban was discriminatory and had trapped many girls in a cycle of poverty.