Meet Culture Where Girls Bre*sts Are Ironed By Mothers_ See Why

 

Chest ironing is the pounding and massaging of a pubescent girl’s bre*sts, using hot tools, to try to make them stop developing or to disappear. It is typically carried out by family members who are trying to protect the girl from s*xual harassment and r*pe. They hope it will also prevent early pregnancy that would tarnish the family name, or to allow the girl to pursue education rather than be forced into early marriage.

It is mostly practiced in parts of Cameroon, where boys and men may think that girls whose bre*sts have begun to grow are ready for s*x. The most widely used implement for chest ironing is a wooden pestle normally used for pounding tubers. Other tools used include leaves, bananas, coconut shells, grinding stones, ladles, spatulas, and hammers heated over coals.

Some of the Cameroonian women and girls whose chests were ironed with hard and heated objects by their mothers in a traditional practice tell their heartbreaking stories.

“Every morning, before going to school, my mom makes me lift up my top so she can make sure I haven’t taken my bandage off. It’s been two years now and she still checks it on a daily basis. It’s humiliating. I’d like her to stop. When I grow up, I want to be a lawyer or play piano. I hope that wearing this bandage will help me to continue my education.” – Cindy, 14 years old.

“Having bre*sts was shameful. My grandmother noticed mine when I was 10. One night, she made me lie down on a bamboo bed by the fire. She pressed on me with a hot wooden spatula and tried to flatten them. Even now, I don’t want people to touch my chest.” – Jeannette, 28 years old.

“They tell you: ‘Don’t scream, it’s for your own good.’ I haven’t had the courage to talk about it to my children yet. Three days ago, my son asked me, ‘Mommy, why do you have small bre*sts?’ I told him that I didn’t know. I also have a six-year-old daughter. But I’m not ready to talk about it. I would have loved to bre*stfeed a future president.” – Carole N., 28 years old.

“My mother told me that my bre*sts were going to attract men. So she brought me to a traditional healer. He grabbed a knife, cut my bre*sts, one after the other, and su_cked the insides out with a tube. He told me: ‘If you don’t do it, people will think you’re a prost!tute.’ I fainted from the pain. It took days to heal. Bre*sts are a gift from God.” – Lisette, 34 years old.

Source: Vice