A woman in the Geita region of Tanzania has been arrested after a video of her kissing another woman went viral, Reuters reports.
The clip was shared on social media and showed the two women hugging and kissing—before one of them presented the other with a ring.
“I can confirm that a Tanzanian woman is under police custody over that video clip,” the Geita police chief Mponjoli Mwabulambo told Reuters.
“We will issue more details later after we conclude our investigation.”
Same-sex sexual activity is illegal in Tanzania—punishable by life in prison. Last month, 12 men were arrested for “promoting homosexuality” at a hotel in Dar es Salaam.
In September, eight men and 12 women were arrested at a HIV/AIDS training session in Zanzibar, accused of engaging in “homosexuality”.
The Geita regional commissioner Robert Gabriel told The Citizen that the woman would be prosecuted according to Tanzania’s anti-LGBT+ laws.
“The country’s laws are clear as homosexuality is not allowed and if this incident has occurred, then it must be condemned,” he said.
“We will not leave this matter to end just like that but we will ensure the law takes its course.”
The 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project found that 95 per cent of surveyed Tanzanians thought that homosexuality was a lifestyle choice that society should not accept.
Cosmas Alele, a resident of the northwestern town of Kagera, wrote in Kiswahili on Twitter that the two women in the video clip should be punished.
“Why did the woman accept an engagement ring from another woman?” Alele added.
The recent arrests are part of a wider crackdown on Tanzania's LGBT+ community. In February this year, the then deputy health minister (now minister for of natural resources and tourism), Hamisi Kigwangalla, threatened to publish a list of gay Tanzanians. Although he eventually backed down, queer Tanzanians continue to be targeted for their sexuality.
