Cameroon – Breast Ironing-Traditional Harmful Practice – IRIN – AWID
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: August 7, 2006
Cameroon-Campaign Launched to Counter ‘Breast Ironing’
YAOUNDE, 28 June (PLUSNEWS) – Activists in Cameroon have Rarely mentioned, especially Now a campaign launched by According to a national survey Flavien Ndonko, an “Many of the RENATA girls, who are young mothers, say Young people make up most Addressing the general lack of “For the parents, it is very Because the topic of sex was A mother, who asked One of her neighbours suggested a solution: “She According to Ndoko, the newly launched awareness “This is a good way to resolve the problem: |
By Kathambi
Kinoti
The Tantines (“aunts”) are a group of young women in Cameroon who
have
undergone reproductive health training and who in turn train other
young
people on reproductive health issues in order to address the issues
of
adolescent pregnancies and HIV/AIDS. AWID spoke to Bessem Arrey
Ebanga
Bissong about breast ironing, one of the reproductive health issues
that
the Tantines are tackling.
AWID: What is breast ironing, and why
did you decide to initiate a campaign
against it?
BESSEM BISSONG:
Breast ironing is a traditional practice that involves
massaging or pressing
the breasts of adolescent girls in order to suppress
the growth of the
breasts. Sometimes hot objects such as stones and wooden
pestles are used and
sometimes other things like herbs and petrol are used.
It is necessary to
fight against this practice which is extremely harmful
and traumatizing for
the girls.
Twenty four percent of adolescent girls undergo this terrible
ordeal and
the practice exists in all the ten provinces of Cameroon. A group
of
Tantines who have undergone the practice decided to draw public
attention
to the psychological trauma and other ensuing health risks in order
to
protect young girls from this form of bodily mutilation.
AWID: Why
is breast ironing carried out?
BB: Several reasons are advanced to
justify this practice. Proponents say
they do this to prevent men being
attracted to young girls, to prevent
girls themselves from pursuing men, to
discourage girls from engaging in
sexual intercourse at a very young age and
to reduce the risk of pregnancy.
They also say that they do this to so that
their studies will not be
interrupted.
AWID: What are the effects of
breast ironing on girls?
BB: Breast ironing is terribly painful and it
violates a young girl’s
physical integrity. It traumatizes her and exposes
her to numerous health
problems such as abscesses, itching, discharge of
milk, dissymmetry of the
breasts, cysts, breast infections and severe fever.
AWID: Why is it that there is not much awareness about this form
of
violation against the girl child, while other harmful traditional
practices
such as female genital mutilation receive a lot of
attention?
BB: Breast ironing is a well kept secret between the young
girl and her
mother and usually even her father is not aware of the torture
his daughter
is subjected to. The girl believes what her mother is doing is
for her own
good and keeps silent. This silence perpetuates the practice and
all its
consequences. It was during one of our training workshops for the
Tantines
that we realized that several of us had suffered this terrible
ordeal and
we therefore decided to denounce it and campaign against
it.
AWID: What strategies have you adopted in your fight against the
practice?
BB: We have produced some radio and television spots, and
several radio and
television journalists have joined us in spreading
information about breast
ironing. We have also produced leaflets and
calendars that carry
information about the objects used in breast ironing,
the extent of the
practice and its consequences. The different Tantines
organizations play a
very big role in their communities in creating awareness
about the practice
and why it should be stopped.
AWID: What
challenges have you encountered in your campaign?
BB: The principal
difficulty we encounter is the conservative mentality of
the people. Just
like female genital mutilation, breast ironing is
considered a tradition –
part of our culture, and for this reason some
people are not ready to stop
the practice.
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