Breast ironing tradition targeted in Cameroon

Every morning before school, nine-year-old Terisia Techu would undergo a painful procedure. Her mother would take a burning hot pestle straight out of a fire and use it to press her breasts.

With tears in her eyes as she recalls what it was like, Terisia tells CNN that one day the pestle was so hot, it burned her, leaving a mark. Now 18, she is still traumatized.

Her mother, Grace, denies the incident. But she proudly demonstrates the method she used on her daughter for several weeks, saying the goal was to make her less desirable to boys -- and stave off pregnancy.

>snip

Now, charities have embarked on campaigns to educate mothers in Cameroon that sex education -- not breast ironing -- is the solution to ending teenage pregnancy.

Dr Sinou Tchana, a gynecologist in Cameroon, has seen breast glands that were destroyed. She also saw one case of cancer, though she says it couldn't be established whether the ironing caused or only exacerbated the cancer.

Read more at the link: http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-27/world/cameroon.breast.ironing_1_breast-cameroonian-mothers?_s=PM:WORLD

I'd never heard of this.

Is there no end to the torture that women have to go through?

Penis splitting/genital bisection....yikes.

tongues and lips. :)

And it seems that once again, nothing (at least nothing noted in this article) is directed at controlling the boys.

Genital mutilation, breast ironing, foot binding, the neck ring tribes of Thailand...

And those are just the obvious examples off the top of my head. I'm sure smart DUers can name many more.

:cry:

I'd never heard of this before. No words, really.

I'm beyond words...A lot of these old self-destructive tribal habits need to die...

I'm going to guess no.