Let Pregnant Girls Resume School â€" VP

Mar 09, 2002

VICE-President Dr. Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe yesterday said girls who get pregnant in school should be allowed to resume studies after giving birth.

By Hamis Kaheru VICE-President Dr. Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe yesterday said girls who get pregnant in school should be allowed to resume studies after giving birth. “Every girl has a right to be educated so that she can become a useful citizen,” she said at the national celebrations to mark Women’s Day at Kololo.“I challenge those girls who got pregnant to go back and study. If you dropped out in primary school, go for O’levels. If you dropped out in O’level, go for a certificate and up to degree level,” she said.“In my constituency, we have girls who have four children and are going to school. In the last graduation we graduated some with six children,” she said.Kazibwe called on women to learn martial arts and karate to resist harassment and violence by men.“Learning martial arts is going to be the solution to this problem. If you know martial arts, you just look at a man and he will not touch you. Prevention is better than cure,” she said amid applause.“When I was at Makerere University in the 1970s, I was chairperson of Mary Stuart Hall. Whenever we went out, soldiers would make us line up and start harassing us until we learnt martial arts,” she said.She asked education minister Kiddu Makubuya and that of state for internal affairs, Sarah Kiyingi, to stand up. “Hon Kiyingi you have people in Luzira who can teach martial arts. If our daughters learn martial arts when boys meet them they will not touch their kabina (bottoms),” she said.Kazibwe condemned sexual abuse against women which, she said, was widespread.“In schools, if you want to teach somewhere the headmaster will first ask you for kaboozi (a chat),” she said. “All those who have been raping children today we should open war on them,” she said.“These girls in the army are being raped by army men but they can’t talk,” she said referring to the women soldiers who participated in the parade.But she said she was happy about the big number of women in the armed forces but was unhappy about inequality in the forces.“They call you officers and men. You must insist that you are women. For me, I have refused to be called ‘sir’ because I am proud to be a woman,” she said.She said women should seek to challenge men for every elective political office to be able to influence the decision-making process.“Everywhere you see a man standing let a woman go there. There are many men who are elected and are not capable. Why do you insist that you want a perfect woman,” she said.She said the Government would support economic emancipation of women by encouraging them to form associations through which they can get financial assistance.“Economic emancipation gives you power. “If a man sends you away, you can go and rent your own house. Get your own money and you will be able to go to FIDA, Mulago Hospital, the salon, take your daughter to school and buy yourself a pair of shoe,” she said. She thanked Gertrude Lubega who moved a motion in the NRC to make Women’s Day a holiday. “That day we had gone to reduce the number of holidays but for us who were on the side of government defied collective responsibility and supported the motion,” she said.Ends

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