The horrific practice of beating girls’ chests with hot irons to stop their breasts growing is happening right here in the UK. Leyla Hussein, an activist and FGM survivor, has spoken out about the ‘absurdly harmful’ breast ironing ritual.
The UK National Committee for UN Women said the abusive practice is on the rise, and now affects 3.8million women and girls around the world. It is particularly widespread in Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa, and thousands of girls in the UK are also at risk.
The words ‘culture,’ ‘tradition’ or ‘religion’ might come up when trying to explain this absurdly harmful practice, but as in the case of FGM, these words are only thinly veiled excuses,’ Hussein wrote in a blog for Cosmopolitan.
‘Breast ironing is just another way to control a woman’s sexuality and perceived attractiveness. Breasts become a dangerous body part that must be removed in case they attract male attention, as if removing all signs of femininity from a girl’s body could protect her from being raped. ‘I underwent FGM for my ‘safety’ too. What an absurd world we live in when women’s bodies are not considered safe in their natural state, and men are not considered responsible for controlling their own urges.’
The ordeal can take anything from a couple of days to a few weeks, and in around 58 per cent of cases it’s carried out by the victim’s mother. In many cases the abuser actually thinks she’s doing something good for her daughter, by delaying the effects of puberty so that she can continue her education, rather than getting married.
London-based charity Cawogido, which campaigns to raise awareness of both breast ironing and FGM, said the practice can lead to cancer, abscesses, infection, cysts, and even the complete disappearance of one or both breasts. They added that it’s dangerously secretive.
‘The girl believes that what her mother is doing is for her own good and she keeps silent,’ they said on their website. ‘This silence perpetuates the phenomenon and all of its consequences.’ The UNFPA has named breast ironing as one of five under-reported crimes related to gender-based violence. Culled From; metro.co.uk
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