{"id":2918,"date":"2024-08-20T01:53:40","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T01:53:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=2918"},"modified":"2024-08-20T01:53:40","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T01:53:40","slug":"tanzanian-police-official-reassigned-after-sparking-outrage-with-comments-on-sex-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=2918","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Tanzanian police official reassigned after sparking outrage with comments on sex work&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"159\" src=\"https:\/\/uwordpressmedia.blob.core.windows.net\/uwordpressmedia01\/2024\/08\/13614394.295-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2919\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A police commander in Tanzania&#8217;s capital, Dodoma, has been removed from her post following controversial comments in which she linked an alleged gang rape victim to sex work.<br><br>Earlier this month a video appearing to show a young woman being assaulted by five men went viral in the East African country, prompting an outcry among the public.<br><br>On Sunday, the police commander in the capital, Dodoma, was quoted in a Tanzanian newspaper as saying the &#8220;woman in question appeared to be engaged in sex work&#8221;.<br><br>Following a backlash and accusations that the comment minimised the woman&#8217;s ordeal, Tanzania&#8217;s national police force apologised and said the commander had been transferred.<br><br>&#8220;The police force would like to apologise to everyone who was touched and offended by the statement circulating in the media while monitoring is being done to find its accuracy,&#8221; national police spokesperson David Misime said on Monday.<br><br>Mr Msime added that in her comments to local newspaper Mwananchi, Dodoma Regional Commander Theopista Mallya had said that even if the woman was a sex worker, &#8220;she did not deserve to be treated that way&#8221;.<br><br>These words did not appear in Mwananchi&#8217;s report.<br><br>In the video appearing to show the woman being raped, the suspects reportedly interrogate her, forcing her to apologise to someone referred to as &#8220;afande&#8221;.<br><br>In Tanzania &#8220;afande&#8221; is often used to refer to a soldier or police officer, so many activists and social media users expressed outrage that a sexual assault could have been carried out on the orders of a member of the security forces.<br><br>&#8220;The investigation revealed that the youths were not acting on orders from any officers; they were merely under the influence of alcohol and drugs,&#8221; Ms Mallya told Mwananchi.<br><br>&#8220;However the woman in question appeared to be engaged in sex work,&#8221; she said.<br><br>Following the public backlash over Ms Mallya&#8217;s comments, Tanzania&#8217;s national police said she had been transferred to the police headquarters, though it is not clear whether this is temporary or permanent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A police commander in Tanzania&#8217;s capital, Dodoma, has been removed from her post following controversial comments in which she linked an alleged gang rape victim [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2920,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2918\/revisions\/2920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}