While child marriages are the order of the day in many cultures around the world, tribes in Cameroon are, however, opposed to allowing their teenage girls waste their lives by getting married or pregnant too early.
This motive would have been commendable and a good thing if not for how the Cameroonians go about it. In order to keep teenage girls from being appealing to suitors, these tribes carry out what is known as breast ironing.
Also known as breast flattening, this act involves pounding and massaging of a teenage girl’s breasts, using hard or heated objects, to try to make them stop developing or disappear.
Breast ironing is common in West and Central Africa, including Guinea-Bissau, Chad, Togo, Benin, Guinea-Conakry, Côte d’voire, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
It’s particularly prevalent in Cameroon where the number of girls who have been subjected to breast ironing is estimated be as high as one in three (around 1.3 million).
According to the United Nations, 3.8 million teenagers worldwide have been affected by breast flattening. This practice which is quite appalling has, however, not gathered much attention worldwide.
The intentions of the Cameroonians to keep their teenage girls out of early marriages is a good one, however, it is one that comes at unbearable pain in many cases for the girls.
The medical consequences are usually grave. This comes as instruments such as grinding stones, spatulas, brooms and belts could be used to tie or bind the breasts flat.
Sometimes leaves which are believed to have medicinal or healing qualities are used, as well as plantain peels, hot stones and electric irons.
The development of a girl’s breasts during puberty anywhere in the world is an indication that her sexuality is emerging. This also means that the prying eyes of men would begin to be fixed on her.
Besides flattening the breasts of teenage girls in order to avoid early marriage, the Cameroonians also carry out this practice in order to keep their daughters in school for longer.
They believe that if a girl’s breasts can be held back from developing, they will not be viewed as ready for marriage and childbirth and so will be free to continue with their education for longer.
Clearly breast ironing is not the answer to child marriage. But in contexts where there are few choices, it seems to offer some mothers the only viable way of giving their daughters a little longer to become educated enough to have options.
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