Why Some Teen Girls Are Forced to Iron Their Breasts

In most instances, a mother is a teen girl’s best defense and resource when it comes to issues of sexual health, education, and information — but what happens when that person you trust the most becomes the abuser? That’s the issue the charity CAME Women’s and Girl’s Development Organization (Cawogido) is trying to bring to the world’s attention by campaigning against the horrific practice of breast ironing.

A common ritual in African countries like Cameroon, South Africa, and Nigeria, breast ironing affects 3.8 million women according to a UN report and reported by The Daily Mail. It’s exactly what it sounds like and mothers in these countries are the biggest perpetrators, mutilating their daughters in hopes of stunting breast development in girls ages 11 to 15 in order to ward off sexual development and would be sexual predators, so that girls won’t get pregnant and have to leave school. In order to carry out this disfiguring act, hot stones, hammers, or spatulas are heated and then used to flatten out growing chests. It’s appalling, it’s shocking, and it’s absolutely terrifying for the young girls who must go through this ordeal at the hand’s of their mothers who tell them it’s for their own good.

“The girl believes that what her mother is doing is for her own good and she keeps silent. [It’s] a well-kept secret between the young girl and her mother,” writes Cawogido on their website.

More here: http://www.teenvogue.com/story/breast-ironing-young-girls?mbid=social_facebook