In Cameroon, parents are “ironing” the breasts of their female children. Why? To prevent them from developing breasts and attracting men. Basically, this is a form of birth control in their minds.
Extremely disturbing, the lack of information about sexual education is leading folks to disfigure and harm their girlchildren. Sometimes two times a day, everyday for two months… hot stones, fresh from the fire are placed on a young girl’s breasts. As young as 9 years of age.
Check out this documentary from Current TV:
http://current.com/items/88852332_breast_ironing (sorry, I’m having trouble embedding).
An alternative would be to increase sex education or to place the onus on men to control themselves in regards to young girls, instead of trying to impede puberty so that the girls don’t attract the men.
I post this for your information and because April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. With that, we recognize sexual and gender violence against women all over the world.
bourgie, interrupted 
This kinda stuff is always touchy…
It’s gonna be the “Their culture vs. our Western ideals” folks against the “Burning children with hot rocks” folks.
“You can’t expect them to adapt, yadda yadda yadda…”
…
I’m with the line of thought that says that if a man doesn’t want to be tempted, then HE needs to take responsibility over his own actions.
This is like whichever country it was that had no problem assaulting women for wearing short skirts on the bus… cause she was tempting men.
*smh*
It’s bullshit and in 2008, long-standing ancient practices or not, that shit needs to go away.
I’m all for cultural relativism (what’s right in one culture is not necessarily right in another and one must view the practices of other cultures from their shoes). But this, just like with female genital mutilation/circumcision, is being condemned from WITHIN. These girls don’t want to have their chests burned by hot rocks. That’s what makes it alarming. This is not like stretching your neck with rings or tying rocks to your penis. This is hurting these girls. IF you watch the video, you see.
I peeped this a few years ago… On TV and in a few magazines. Forget which ones off top…
And I actually had a decent convo with a professor about it a year or so ago.
Those practices need to be dealt away with.
INCLUDING tying rocks to penii. :'(
I’m all for preserving customs… but some of that stuff is null and void with the advances we’ve (mankind) made over the past 200 or so years.
We can do better. By ourselves and for others.