{"id":136572,"date":"2019-05-02T22:48:44","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T20:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/breast-ironing-a-harmful-practice-that-doesnt-get-sufficient-attention-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2019-05-02T22:48:44","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T20:48:44","slug":"breast-ironing-a-harmful-practice-that-doesnt-get-sufficient-attention-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/breast-ironing-a-harmful-practice-that-doesnt-get-sufficient-attention-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Breast ironing: a harmful practice that doesn’t get sufficient attention | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Breast ironing: a harmful practice that doesn’t get sufficient attention<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Mothers iron their daughters' breasts as a way of preventing early marriage and keeping their daughters in school for longer. <\/span> Shutterstock<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recent news reports in the UK of breast ironing portray yet more ways in which culture causes harm to young girls. The reports followed renewed calls for stronger action against the practice, which is observed to prevent the development of a girl\u2019s breasts and subsequently reduce the sexual attention she may receive. It involves using an object to massage, pound, or press the breasts flat. <\/p>\n

Breast ironing is common in West and Central Africa, including Guinea-Bissau, Chad, Togo, Benin, Guinea-Conakry, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Kenya and Zimbabwe. It\u2019s particularly prevalent in Cameroon: there, the number of girls who have been subjected to breast ironing is estimated be as high as one in three (around 1.3 million). <\/p>\n

According to the United Nations, 3.8 million teenagers worldwide have been affected by breast flattening. It\u2019s estimated that about 1 000 girls from West African communities across the UK have been subjected to the practice, but the figure could be much higher. <\/p>\n

While reports on the horrors of female genital mutilation, forced marriage and so-called honour killings are common, people are perhaps less aware of the practice where young girls, as puberty sets in, have their breasts ironed flat. <\/p>\n

I have established this during 15 years of research into \u201charmful cultural practices\u201d around the world. The practice mirrors ugly misogynistic beliefs and values that underpin other abusive practices. It is ultimately reflective of a power dynamic that demands female submissiveness and complete control over the sexuality of women and girls. <\/p>\n

The socialisation of young girls<\/h2>\n

Breast ironing has been an embedded part of the socialisation of young girls from affected communities for quite some time. The medical consequences can be severe. The practice can include the use of grinding stones, spatulas, brooms and belts to tie or bind the breasts flat. Sometimes leaves which are believed to have medicinal or healing qualities are used, as well as plantain peels, hot stones and electric irons. <\/p>\n

The practice is usually carried out by mothers, shamans and healers. Some midwives perform the practice. This makes it a source of income, in a way that\u2019s similar to female genital mutilation. <\/p>\n

The growth of a girl\u2019s breasts during puberty is seen as linked to the emergence of her sexuality; if left unchecked, this will bring \u201cproblematic\u201d and \u201cdestructive\u201d implications for family and community status quo (patriarchy). <\/p>\n

However, this gendered reading of the practice is further complicated by research that suggests mothers begin ironing the breasts of their daughters as a way of trying to prevent early marriage and keep daughters in school for longer. <\/p>\n

In other words, if a girl\u2019s breasts can be held back from developing they will not be viewed as ready for marriage and childbirth and so will be free to continue with their education for longer. <\/p>\n

Understanding the drivers behind the practice is obviously critical if routes to change are going to be identified. Clearly breast ironing is not the answer to child marriage. But in contexts where there are few choices, it seems to offer some mothers the only viable way of giving their daughters a little longer to become educated enough to have options.<\/p>\n

A global problem<\/h2>\n

Female genital mutilation and breast ironing needs to be situated within a broader ideology that sees female sexuality as shameful and something to be hidden and denied. <\/p>\n

Globally, there are efforts to reverse this mindset. UK Aid, for example, funds a social movement called The Girls Generation which works throughout Africa to reverse the social norms underpinning female genital mutilation. <\/p>\n

The replacement of harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and breast ironing with other new rituals that celebrate the female body will hopefully, in time, help reverse these negative views. <\/p>\n

\n

Read more: How to target resources in efforts to end female genital mutilation <\/strong> <\/em> <\/p>\n

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Unravelling the prevalence of this practice and the reasons behind it will not be helped by news reporting \u2013 as happened in the UK \u2013 that depicts breast ironing as evidence of yet more horrors harboured by \u201cother cultures\u201d. <\/p>\n

The focus needs to be on the underlying structural inequalities that continue to devalue the bodies of women and girls. This is a global problem and not something unique to specific parts of the world.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Tamsin Bradley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation \u2013 Articles (AFRICA)<\/a><\/small>
\n<\/p>\n

Read more on The Conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Join the fun:<\/strong> Add Your event<\/a> | Submit a Press Release<\/a> | Add your listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breast ironing: a harmful practice that doesn’t get sufficient attention: Mothers iron their daughters' breasts as a way of preventing early marriage and keeping their daughters in school for longer. Shutterstock Recent news reports in the UK of breast ironing portray yet more ways in which culture causes harm to young girls. The reports followed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[10601,3698,8890,5433,24168,34571,4166,31683],"class_list":{"0":"post-136572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-attention","8":"tag-breast","9":"tag-conversation","10":"tag-doesnt","11":"tag-harmful","12":"tag-ironing","13":"tag-practice","14":"tag-sufficient","15":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}