Breast Ironing

- Breast Ironing

This is, unfortunately, as bad as it sounds. Someone, usually the mother, will hold a girl aged 8-13 or just as she starts to blossom, and iron her chest with an extremely hot object. They are trying to stop her breasts from growing, believing in their minds that they are protecting the child from rape and/or pregnancy. They also beat on the chest with heated objects like the kitchen tool used to mash potatoes or anything that they can get. They pound and press with the heated object, causing more damage than they realize. The crazy part of it is that their intentions are good. They want the child not to be molested and to have a chance to finish her education.

More than 4 million females have suffered this fate at the hands of loved ones over the years in regions of the Republic of Cameroon. Breast ironing causes tissue damage, which can lead to breast cancer, cysts, infections, the inability to breast-feed their eventual children, depression, and malformation and/or the loss of at least one breast and possibly both.

 http://thumbpress.com/the-10-most-weird-body-deformation-practices/

I read this article and it really caught my attention, I was amazed at what other cultures do to ensure their children live a life free of molestation and within their believes offer them a better opportunity to succeed in academics, it made me want to share this with our class since I think it’s a sensitive subject and awareness can help make a difference.