breast ironing (warning:graphic material)

[Soft*Silver]

YouTube- Breast Ironing of Young Girls in Cameroon !!!

I dont even remember what I was looking for when I ran across this video on this practice of breast ironing in Cameroom. I had never heard of it. It is now common for girls under the age of 9 to have their breasts ironed flat with very hot flat rocks, to prevent them from being sexually appealing. One in 4 girls have their breasts ironed. And, sadly, this is an outcome of girls having better diets/nutrition. They are developing younger. And, as bad if not worse, it is also said to happen because girls are now getting educated. Mothers want their girls to get educated but teen pregnancy runs rampant. To prevent them from getting pregnant, they deform their daughter's breasts permanently, to make them less appealing.

I have never heard of this! I remember how I felt when I learned about infibulations and clitoredectomies. I knew that these practices were slowly being extinquished, though not yet extinct, by health organizations educating people about the health risks. (It was told to me that the infibulations and clitordectomies were one major reason why HIV was spread so rampant in heterosexual populations in Africa.) I felt like the world was changing, albeit, slowly, but eventually the disfiguring and torturous female rituals would end.

and then I see this video.

nine years old. Nine years old they are held down and their breasts are burned and flattened so they can have an education and not be appealing to men who can get them pregnant...

god I am not going to sleep well tonight...

[suebee]

Here's a radical idea: birth control. :seeingstars:

Boggles my mind!

[Soft*Silver]

in the video, its stated that they know very little about birth control.

The women who are doing this, are uneducated and were reared by the old customs, which are still not eradicated from the culture. They can only see solutions that are known to them. They themselves have gone thru the FGM (female genital mutilation) ritual. Every hour 300 girls have FGM. (quoted from this video..again...graphic) YouTube- Female Genital Cutting


Here's a radical idea: birth control. :seeingstars:

Boggles my mind!

[Soft*Silver]

This is a poem read by a woman who underwent FGM

YouTube- Female Genital Mutilation (Poem)-They took it

[Manul]

Here's another radical idea:

Execute men who impregnate 9 year old girls.

[Mindy]

I have a friend who campaigns very very vocally and all over the web for the ending of male circumcision also.. saying it is male genital mutilation. She says why do we cringe at the thought of this being done to girls yet routinely do it to boys.. and truthfully, it is NOT needed for cleanliness as our doctors tell us. If you saw videos of it, you'd think twice about that too.

I'm not saying this isn't horrid, because I was disgusted by it, but it brought her argument to my mind as I watched it.

[Heart]

Genital mutilation thread: http://www.butchfemmeplanet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1588

[suebee]

in the video, its stated that they know very little about birth control.

The women who are doing this, are uneducated and were reared by the old customs, which are still not eradicated from the culture. They can only see solutions that are known to them. They themselves have gone thru the FGM (female genital mutilation) ritual. Every hour 300 girls have FGM. (quoted from this video..again...graphic) YouTube- Female Genital Cutting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIggOkXKz9o&feature=related)

Sorry. It was late and I'd had a long day. My complete thought was that birth control should be taught, both to men and women.

[Stearns]

Here's another radical idea:

Execute men who impregnate 9 year old girls.


What????? Hold men responsible for their behavior????? That's just too radical, Manul

[Manul]

What????? Hold men responsible for their behavior????? That's just too radical, Manul

Only man, not woman, is the ‘image of God’.
Every woman carries the curse of Eve, as originator of sin.
Woman is a source of temptation.
Among heretics, women teach, dispute, heal and, perhaps, baptize
Women may not teach, baptize or take on the priestly ministry
A woman's head needs to be covered, but not with a crown
It is better for a man not to marry, because it is tainted with concupiscence


You are the Devil's gateway. (http://www.womenpriests.org/traditio/tertul.asp)

More (http://books.google.com/books?id=Ux3bSDa2rHkC&pg=PA132&lpg=PA132&dq=%22You+are+the+devil's+gateway%22&source=bl&ots=vwXVqK0taX&sig=OvwFP59odTBazOchsVRjSQtRAPM&hl=en&ei=G6VNTJeEOoS8lQf8vMj4DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CC8Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22You%20are%20the%20devil's%20gateway%22&f=false)

[Soft*Silver]

if I were healthy, even at this age, I would go to Africa and work with the women and children. My daughter is so driven to go there and teach and work amongst the orphaned children who are HIV affected or infected. I truly believe she will some day.

I too believe that men and women should be educated about birth control but their whole culture is so mysogonist (sp?). What can you expect from a culture who slices off the clitoras so the women shall have no pleasure and only be consumed with satisfying the needs of her husband? And if they do not have it done, they are considered not marriage material. And that does not serve their father who receives cattle for his daughter's hand in marriage.

I did see on one of the photos, a young woman who refuses to be cut. When asked if it will make her less marraigable (omg. My spelling has gotten FAR worse as I age) she said, basically, who cares? If he wants her, he will give cattle for her anyway. What a wonderful mind set! So, it is changing, but it will take a long time before the entire culture changes..