Cameroonian girls, young women suffer the tortures of 'breast ironing'

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
10/26/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Barbaric practice mutilates women in order to keep them chaste

A Medieval, barbaric practice known as "breast ironing" is widely practiced in Cameroon. As many as one in four girls are routinely tortured by female relatives in an ill-advised practice to keep them from inciting male lust.

Breast ironing is widely practiced throughout Cameroon, particularly in the center and west of the country. This practice exists among the rich families -- as well as the poor.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The practice usually occurs during puberty. Female relatives of the young girl, sometimes even their own mothers, try to make their putative breasts disappear by crushing them. Families believe this "protects" the girls from experiencing their sexuality too soon.

Called the "ironing" or "massaging" of the breasts, as it is sometimes euphemistically called, has also been reported in Togo and Guinea.

"A lot of women become worried when their daughter reaches puberty around the age of eight or nine. They consider this to be too early," Executive Secretary of Renata Georgette Arrey Taky says. Renata is a national network of young mothers that teaches sexual education to Cameroonian women.

Breast ironing is widely practiced throughout Cameroon, particularly in the center and west of the country. This practice exists among the rich families -- as well as the poor.

"The reason why breast ironing is so rooted in our customs is because the mothers who endured it were told by their own mothers that it was to protect them. They therefore repeat the gesture to protect their own daughters. It's a vicious circle that survives through ignorance more than tradition," one survivor says.

Many mothers here are concerned when their daughter reaches puberty around the age of eight or nine. They consider this age to be too early and therefore believed that their daughter will attract boys and risk becoming pregnant too early.

Most of the girls are "massaged" when they are 15 or 16 years old. By making their breasts disappear, the mothers believe they can control the girls' effect on men. Dispelling this belief very quickly is the fact that very young mothers also sport ironed breasts.

Women's rights groups are working to convince parents that effective sex education can only be achieved through dialogue.

"Women, usually mothers or aunts, use spatulas, stones and even pestles," one activist says.

Spatulas, stones or even pestles are heated up and struck against the developing breast. The strike leads to burns as well as infections and cysts. The long-term consequences are no less detrimental.

According to a few specialists, the victims are more susceptible to breast cancer. Damaged breasts become the source of body image issues. "I met a girl who doesn't even dare to take her clothes off in front of her friends," one activist says.

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Keywords: Cameroon, breast ironing, mutilation, body image, tradition

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1 - 6 of 6 Comments

Terri K
7 months ago
This is a /real/ women's issue. Where are all those rich feminists (like Melinda Gates) when there's a real issue that affects the rights and dignity of women? Abortion and contraception are not humanitarian objectives. Mainstream feminism is such a farce.
CWM
7 months ago
I am an African woman living in Africa...I have never heard of this practice and simply shocked at the madness...this is a crime against the girls at the same magnitude as Female Genital Mutilation! It needs to end!
Emma
7 months ago
While mothers in Cameroon torture their daughters in an effort to keep them from attracting attention from the opposite sex, western mothers encourage breast implants and shell out big bucks for revealing attire so their little girls can attract the opposite sex. Both are abusing their children. Both are socially accepted and ingrained in their culture. Both require education. One is abhorrent to us. I'm sure that those mothers would be equally horrified by our practices. If we can gently re -educate the mothers in Cameroon, we must also be gentle when re -educucating the mothers in our own society. Are the girls fathers absent in this culture also? In our society, it's usually 'the father who advocates for the modesty of the daughter. I do believe that our own culture is very "out -of -whack " due to the lack of male influence in family life. Boys have no one to show them how to be a man and girls have no one to teach them and guide them through the early dating hurdles.
G.G. a pro-life Catholic.
7 months ago
HOW TERRIBLE! HOW CAN THIS BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN? IT IS A DEMEANING
AND TORTURE PROCEDURE...WHY IS THE REST OF THIS WORLD SO UNCARING
AND OBLIVIOUS TO SUCH EVIL TORTURE?
Some Girl
7 months ago
this is disgusting you are destroying their milk glands to feed their own babies....you wouldn't have to do this if you didn't feel the fear of men taking advantage too soon of young girls....utterly stupid..
MaryAnn
7 months ago
Is there no end to the horrible things human beings can think up to torture one another? This is child abuse, a "tradition" of child abuse.. awful.

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