Millions of Cameroon girls suffer "breast ironing"

[ButterflyBlood]

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (Reuters) - Worried that her daughters' budding breasts would expose them to the risk of sexual harassment and even rape, their mother Philomene Moungang started 'ironing' the girls' bosoms with a heated stone.

"I did it to my two girls when they were eight years old. I would take the grinding stone, heat it in the fire and press it hard on the breasts," Moungang said.

<...>

A new survey has revealed it is shockingly widespread in Cameroon, where one in four teen-agers are subjected to the traumatic process by relatives, often hoping to lessen their sexual attractiveness.

"Breast ironing is an age-old practice in Cameroon, as well as in many other countries in West and Central Africa, including Chad, Togo, Benin, Guinea-Conakry, just to name a few," said Flavien Ndonko, an anthropologist and local representative of German development agency GTZ, which sponsored the survey.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060711/hl_nm/breast_ironing_dc

[benburch]

1. Ewwwww! nt

[truthisfreedom]

2. ouch! oww! how incredibly bizarre! just put on a loose sweater or some-

thing, for god's sake already! slouch or something!

[katinmn]

3. Those poor girls!

x(

[Rainscents]

4. Oh, crap... this is sick.

:(

[Kutjara]

5. Great, yet another society that mutilates women...

...this time to 'protect' them from men. Interesting that there are very few instances of societies that do similar things to men. Guess it's those evil temptress women who need to be punished again.

[Betsy Ross]

6. Yeah,

Why don't they put two foot arrows through men's dicks so they can't have sex. That would protect the women. Need I say :sarcasm:?

[Pathwalker]

7. Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! OOOOUUUUCCCHHH!

Mutilating young girls to diminish their sexual attractiveness - the men in their society must be depraved animals for Mothers to do this to their daughters - this is sickening!

[pooja]

8. We find it disgusting... but it is what it is...

There are still places in this world that haven't been "touched" by modern society and some that have are slow to change. I certainly don't think mutilation of anyone is a good thing, but look at where we came from and where we are going....

[rayofreason]

11. True enough...

...but it is also true that such practices be condemned.

[MadMaddie]

9. Well these girls might have a chance if there is oil underneath

Camaroon....because that is the only way this administration would acknowledge this brutality....sigh.....

[rayofreason]

10. Another example...

...of sexual mutilation of women in traditional societies.

Unfortunately, one of the main backlashes against modernism stems from the liberation of women of tight patriarchal/sexual control. Men feel threatened and lash out against "westernism". I have some understanding for this reaction, and little sympathy. I don't care if "traditional" aspects of culture get trampled in such cases and I am against cultural relativists who argue that tradiational mores are equally "valid' as western ideas. The oppression of women is destined for the scrapheap of history, no matter what precious tradition is involved.

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. I have a friend whose mom did this another way

My friend developed very early, and her mom freaked out, convinced that her little girl would be a target for rapists. So she put her fear into her daughter, with the result that she was unable to have a relationship until well into her 30s, and then only after years of therapy.

Some people's parents, man.

[McCamy Taylor]

13. Cannibalism is an "age old practice" in some places too, but no

one advocates letting those people continue their traditional way of life. Face it, some traditional practices suck a rat's ass. Northern Europe had its share of atrocious behaviors before it got civilized. There are some customs that may have served a purpose at some time in history in some ecologic niche, but that does not mean that we have to honor and respect them now in order to give some group a sense of identity. Groups can change their behaviors and keep their identify just fine. Look at Northern Europe. There is no lack of self esteem there.

The real solution in West Africa is to approach the problem by regulating male behavior. Apparently this was not done in this distant past, maybe because men had to be very aggressive, masculine, fertile for some reasons related to the local ecology and economy. Maybe men got killed a lot in battle or hunting so the few who were left were allowed to do what they wanted. But times have changed. People are mobile. Their jobs are different. Men need to acquire different skills and different values.

Moms, instead of raising ugly daughters, you need to be raising civilized sons who can hold down civilized jobs.

[Glorfindel]

14. Disgusting...but MALE mutilation is practically universal in the USA

circumcision, that lovely old custom, is widely practiced and admired. It's nothing but mutilation, period, end of discussion.

[iverglas]

15. I just kinda doubt the motives

of some of the parties to the denunciation:

http://allafrica.com/stories/200606290857.html

The Sub Director in charge of Judiciary Cooperation in the Ministry of Justice, Mathias Nyoh Dinga, has said breast ironing is as bad as other forms of torture punishable under the law. He made the statement while responding to questions at a forum in Yaounde to commemorate the United Nations International Day in Support of Torture Victims Worldwide.

... One of the participants also sought to know whether a wife who has been forced into sexual intercourse by the husband could take the matter to court for legal redress.

Nyoh and Barrister Tanda explained that handling such a case is very difficult considering that sexual intercourse is one aspect of the nuptial bond. Nyoh added that if for some medical reasons, the wife is unfit to engage in sex, the claim can be tenable.

He said that indulging in sexual starvation of one partner by the other without any justifiable reason constitutes torture, which can legally be redressed.

Marital rape of women by men is not just legal, but justified. Women withholding sexual services from men is torture. Quite an odd view of things.

Of course, it should always be recalled that marital rape was not a criminal offence in our part of the world in my lifetime, and the justifications offered were basically the same.

An interesting (if not particularly accessible) article, from an Episcopalian publication in the US, about the sexual abuse of children in Cameroon:

http://thewitness.org/agw/nyeck093003eng.html

It really is worth remembering that the mothers who engage in this practice are attempting to protect their daughters from a very real and present danger, and that these mothers are quite simply not in a position to do anything about the source of that danger directly.

The big shots denouncing the practice while doing little to nothing about the sexual abuse of children (and sexual exploitation of and violence against women) that prompts women to do this to their daughters might do well to pick on someone their own size and stop blowing smoke at the issues.