By using a smooth stone, heated carefully over fire, a mother presses and burns the growing breast of her young daughter to make them disappear. Crying in pain, the girl begs her to stop but her mother assures her it is for her own good. What good? What could possibly be worth justifying such a harmful intervention?
This is breast ironing, a traditional practice that affects about one in four girls in Cameroon. Many mothers argue they iron their daughters’ breasts to prevent them from attracting men and, therefore, from suffering from undesired sexual consequences. Consequences which, at the same time, are equally worrying, such as abortions that can potentially be fatal, early pregnancies that force them to marry or leave school, or sexual diseases transmitted from unprotected sex.
A different aim
Traditional harmful practices against women are almost uncountable across human history. They include Chinese foot binding, corsets, female genital mutilation, chastity belt and African neck rings. All of these practices aim to increase on men’s attraction and sexual pleasure. However, breast ironing brings a significant difference; according to its performers, it is precisely done to avoid male attention.
From this particularity it might be wondered why these mothers are so afraid of men’s attention that they prefer mutilate their children’s bodies. By understanding Cameroonian society, the significance of breasts and consequently, breast ironing, becomes clear
“A girl can be sent to marriage as soon as she starts having breasts,” explains Georgette Taku, executive secretary of Renata’s women’s association in Yaoundé, Cameroon. “From the breasts is shown that a girl is ready to have sex.”
Cultural norms and educational environment are the keys that modify the meaning and behaviour of people. Whereas here the pressure is on girls to have artificially large breasts, in Cameroon breast ironing is designed to achieve the exact opposite.
In 2006 a campaign against breast ironing was launched in Cameroon by the National Network of the Association of the Aunties (RENATA) and the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ).
However, still many girls in Cameroon suffer from this practise performed by their relatives, who choose to “protect” them by making them unattractive to men and, therefore, avoiding the dramatic consequences than result from unsafe sexual relations.
This complex and dependent relationship between breast ironing, lack of sexual education and social gender inequalities in Cameroon is a matter of great importance in the field of girls’ rights.
By Eva Fernández
