One of my friends posted a spoken word piece she did about breast ironing. I'm pretty interested in woman's rights and just practices that women take part of in different cultures specifically in other places other than the US and this caught my attention. In the US, it seems cultural practices are mushed (it's a technical term) together so it's difficult to distinguish the origin of the tradition. I'm more interested in African, Asian and Middle Eastern culture because it is so different from when I see on a daily basis.
I've heard some pretty grotesque stuff over the years. I've heard about women that have had genital mutational. I've done a lot of research and read as many accounts as I could about what's going on in the Republic of the Congo. I've done research about Middle Eastern women and their treatment changed because of the arrival of the Taliban. I'm slowly drifting towards Asian culture but I'll get there. There's still so much I'd like to learn.
Anyway, I guess this is my reaction to the news story I read as a result of hearing the spoken word piece on facebook. I can see why the mothers would do this. I think just about every mother would want to protect their daughter from early sexual advances but even reading this hurt. Heating objects and pounding into a little girl's breasts makes me want to crawl into my closet and hide. I understand everyone has their own practices and beliefs but how can you hurt your child like that. I understand they want to protect them from sexual advances and early marriages but this is cruel. One of the girls or now women said " I wanted to go to school like other girls who had no breasts " I'm sorry but what? And some women did it to themselves. I'm sure my mother doesn't want me to have children or get married before I finish school, she doesn't now and she didn't when I was younger, but I think this is extreme.
But then again, this isn't entirely the mother's fault. The men and media play a part too. And unless their minds can be changed, this or something like this will continue to happen. I'm looking at it from outside in so I cannot definitively say this is wrong because I was not brought up in that culture. But then again, if an outside party questions something or says maybe it's not the best idea and you're blinded by cultural traditions maybe it's time you check yourself. I don't know, this is just my 2 cents on this. I included the BBC article so if anyone reads this or is curious be my guest.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5107360.stm
Number 28 right?
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