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.

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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”.

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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.

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Equality Now said the ban was discriminatory and had trapped many girls in a cycle of poverty while exposing them to other human rights violations such Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).