WUNRN
CAMEROON - BREAST IRONING VIDEO
Nkepile Mabuse, CNN
July 27, 2011 - 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.
A study found that one in four girls in
The U.S. State Department, in its 2010 human rights
report on
There are more than 200 ethnic groups in
Some mothers use hot stones or coconut shells to flatten
their daughters' breasts.
Doctors believe improved diets have resulted in young
Cameroonian girls going through puberty early. Many of them are also becoming
pregnant early.
Terisia became pregnant at 15. Her child died at birth.
She told CNN that breast ironing doesn't work. She hates
the practice and wishes her mother had instead talked to her about sex and
preventing pregnancy.
Grace Techu argues that if it weren't for the breast
ironing, Terisia would have become pregnant at an even younger age.
Techu has four daughters, and she used the procedure on
the first two. The third avoided it because her breasts are growing at an
acceptable rate, Techu says, and the fourth girl is still too young.
Mothers who want their children to finish school before becoming
parents have resorted to this drastic measure, and many see nothing wrong with
it.
In 2006, a German nongovernmental organization exposed
the practice, which at the time was done mainly in secret.
Now, charities have embarked on campaigns to educate
mothers in
Dr Sinou Tchana, a gynecologist in
"One mother came with secondary burns because the
stone she was using to do this breast ironing burned her," Tchana says.
One of Tchana's patients is a 23-year-old whose scars are
still painful 14 years after her breasts were ironed. She has joined the effort
to confront mothers about the effects of their actions.
The challenge for all those trying to stop the practice
is reaching parents like Techu in villages before a ritual that they say is
motivated by love shatters more lives.