Tanzania's Female President Appoints Woman as Defense Minister
Voice of America
DAR ES SALAM, TANZANIA - Tanzania's first female president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, this week named a woman as defense minister — the latest in a number of appointments of women to top government posts.
The appointment came as part of the second Cabinet reshuffle Hassan has made since the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, earlier this year.
At the swearing-in of Stergomena Tax as Tanzania’s first female defense and national service minister, Hassan said she made the choice to shatter the myth that women cannot serve in such a position.
“I have decided to break the longtime myth that in the Defense Ministry there should be a man with muscles. The minister’s job in that office is not to carry guns or artillery," Hassan said, adding that Tax's main duty will be to coordinate and manage the administration of policies at the ministry.
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