Sex and Meaning

BBC News Examines Practice of Breast Ironing on Adolescent
Girls in Cameroon

BBC News on Friday examined the practice of “breast ironing” –
which some mothers do to their daughters in Cameroon in an
attempt to prevent sexual advances of boys and men — and a
recently launched campaign to curb the practice. According to
BBC News, breast ironing involves “pounding and massaging the
developing breasts of young girls,” most often with a wooden
pestle and sometimes with heated bananas or coconut shells.
Statistics show that 26% of girls in Cameroon undergo the
practice during puberty, BBC News reports. Although people who
perform the practice could go to jail for up to three years if a
physician determines the breasts have been damaged, the threat
of prison “does not always deter mothers who see their daughters
hitting puberty earlier and earlier thanks to better living
standards,” according to BBC News. The Association of Aunties,
an organization of teen girls in the country, recently launched
a television advertisement campaign aimed at raising awareness
of the health problems breast ironing can cause. According to
BBC News, there is no research on the medical effects of breast
ironing. However, Anderson Doh, director of the government-owned
Gynecological Hospital in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde, said,
“[I]f you over-iron the breast, if you use very hot objects, if
you pound on the breast at this tender age when the structures
are developing, of course you could also cause damage.” BBC News
also reported on a woman who ironed her own breasts in an effort
to avoid early marriage (Sa’ah, BBC News, 6/23).

“Hearing of genital mutilation for so many years, this type of phenomenon is not that surprising. This does reinforce the need for sexual health education in countries where our intervention as richer nations is positively impacting the culture in some ways but also causing conflict in regards to traditional values. Here we’ve fought to improve nutrition yet the effects of better nutrition means that earlier young women reach approximately a hundred pounds, the earlier their menstruation starts. I would hope that in addition to public service announcements that there is also a grass roots approach in villages to talk with families directly.”

Source:
kaisernetwork.org