NewsWhore
07-12-2006, 12:10 AM
Millions of Cameroon girls suffer "breast ironing" - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060711/hl_nm/breast_ironing_dc_1): "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.
'They cried and said it was painful. But I explained that it was for their own good.'
'Breast ironing' -- the use of hard or heated objects or other substances to try to stunt breast growth in girls -- is a traditional practice in West Africa, experts say.
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."
[/URL] (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/Sxxxyorg?a=Y0iDcv7W) [URL=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/Sxxxyorg?a=EABXXQle] (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/Sxxxyorg?a=v9cQjP8t)
Link To Original Article (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sxxxyorg/~3/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sxxxy.org%2F2006%2F07%2Fbreast-ironing.html)
'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.
'They cried and said it was painful. But I explained that it was for their own good.'
'Breast ironing' -- the use of hard or heated objects or other substances to try to stunt breast growth in girls -- is a traditional practice in West Africa, experts say.
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."
[/URL] (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/Sxxxyorg?a=Y0iDcv7W) [URL=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/Sxxxyorg?a=EABXXQle] (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/Sxxxyorg?a=v9cQjP8t)
Link To Original Article (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sxxxyorg/~3/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sxxxy.org%2F2006%2F07%2Fbreast-ironing.html)