"Breast-ironing" why the hell isn't this higher profile!

[Salbertina]

Anyone hear the feature just now on Womans Hour? If not, its the practice of pounding a girl's growing breasts "with a hard object" in an attempt to thwart male attention/ further education/prevent early marriage or shame being brought on family. Can, unsurprisingly, cause breast cancer.
Practised in Cameroon, Kenya..even Zimbabwe and S Africa! Not sure how widespread.
Why haven't i heard of international dev campaigns focussed on this?

And they do very good work mostly because they have ties to the region and know how to put an education programme with those considerations in mind. I think any type of international development campaign without that would fail, mostly because it would come across as "we know this is becoming more popular due to our men coming and raping your daughters and them sending media which promotes this to your population but rather than deal with them in any way we'll tell all about how the way you are trying to protect them is bad".

The best thing we can do is have a frank conversation with our own men and boys about sex tourism. It is what is fueling this and being widely ignored.

Good point.. Do u work in the field yourself?

Surely local men at least part of problem also? Sex tourism from overseas, while utterly abhorrent, cannot be the sole cause. Certainly the WH prog focussed on

these men.

Thanks for the links & info salbertina

We're far more responsible for our men and boys than we are for theirs - we have to take responsibility for ourselves or what we say will come across poorly if we try to advise others. The best thing we can do is to talk to our own men and boys and openly talk about the problems of sex tourism - we'll not only have a bigger impact but we'll be taken more seriously if we discuss these abroad.

Research in the older sex trade countries (Thailand, Cambodia...) involving pimps, local punters, and sex workers of various different stripes shows that the Western White sex tourists change the game. Not only do they bring more money and the overseas bit allows the pimps to promise 'better life' lies, but they also tend to also bring extremely hardcore porn and normalize it to the local population. In discussion with the local punters and rapists, the vast majority discuss getting their ideas about sex workers/women from this extreme Western porn (violent gangbangs were particularly noted, stuff usually illegal in the country of origin but no laws yet done in the country affected as it is a newer phenomenon). Also, local men are more likely to be dealt with and be punished than someone who travels in, rapes these girls, and leaves with no chance of ever getting justice. It's part of why some countries are working to make it harder for Westerns to get entry visas. It's a well recognised pattern. Even in few countries where locals do more (South Africa, USA) there is a highly racialised element that should be dealt with but is being ignored.

Agree, but 2-pronged approach, surely

I'd never heard of it before. It is horrific. Thank you for raising awareness.

Groups with local connection can do two pronged approach. Fully support them and donations for them would be great; however,

The general international development community (which would mean the general UK population and NGOs) can't do that without coming across as putting the desires and violent crimes of our men above the fears of these women for their daughters. Unless we tackle and start taking that seriously, any type of intervention to stop breast ironing or breast binding from groups that don't have that connection will not be taken well. We would come across as not understanding their reality and concerns and would likely not be effective and would cause any local force to do it to not do as well because they would appear to be tied with us. The local connection in is all important. Our local connection is the men who use the sex tourism industry and we should focus on dealing with that.

It's like Volunteer Tourism, it sounds like a lovely idea to help but it often causes a lot more problems for the groups that could do the most good while losing where we could do the most good. We don't need to be in their space, they usually don't want us in their space, we need to fix what is wrong in our space.

Great to debate this.

I think local more important if adequately resources and, skilled. If not, input/funds/resources/.profile-raising from international organisations is crucial to build on the local projects. Also for putting pressure on govs to amend policy/focus efforts.

I actually live in southern Africa and have seen this at firsthand.

Agree with you about short-term volunteer tourism tho. Can work ok if appropriate skiils/need match and relatively long-term. Otherwise just something to assuage Western conscience -and to make big fat profit for agent company

Depends on the issue, depends on the organisation. The funding and resources would help, but this issue is very much linked into the history of Western men and entitlement to women's bodies that getting direct involvement is far more likely to harm those groups who can make a far better difference.

In general, I find many screw up looking out for themselves or their ideals more than help the real people involved (see the anti-gay laws in Uganda brought in by an American NGO, death penalty and all).

It is not just sex tourism or Western men.

Correct me if I'm wrong, OP, but isn't rape is incredibly common in these countries you mention. It seems to me it is much more culturally acceptable?

Probably, certainly here in SA rape is endemic..countries I mentioned were those cited in the google entry someone posted re breast-ironing. Not my choice as it were.

I read about it somewhere (can't remember where) last week and was astounded that I had never heard of it before.

I was the same, Exoticfruits. I really do think this should be pushed higher in public awareness, along the lines of female genital mutilation.

Bumping

It makes you wonder what else goes on that we don't know about.

Yep, bloody patriarchal society and all that. Women treated as 2nd class citizens in much of the world

No, it is not just Western men and sex tourism, but they have a major, substantial game changing effect. As the sex tourism moves into an area, the rape rates go up exponentially by both the tourists and the locals. The tourists make rape more acceptable in an area. This has been confirmed repeatedly in multiple studies across several countries. The best way for the Western countries to help is to start taking responsibility for their men and boys rather than treating it like a joke and sweeping it off by saying they aren't the only ones causing damage.

South Africa's rape endemic is racialised, the white men, a minority, does a vastly large amount of the rape against the indigenous population. Similarly in the US, which also has a rape endemic, this is true (the average woman has a 1 in 5 chance of being raped in the States, that number in more than 1 in 3 for an American Indigenous woman, and less than 20% of that is by Indigenous men - the vast majority is by white men). Until the men are made to be responsible and it actually becomes culturally unacceptable, really unacceptable not just on the surface, the fear will be there and that can overcome a lot of sense.

The local group is doing well but the West has a lot to answer for across the regions that these are growing in.

where are your stats from for SA?? I live here and have never heard that. Most violence here is black on black - due to sheer numbers (only 9% of pop is white), poverty, widespread ignorance (not helped by Zumas own views!) - eg rape a virgin to cure your Aids, rape will cure a lesbian of her sexuality.... I am not making any oc this up, all regularly reported in reputable press over here. I think cultural sensitivity, while admirable, can be taken too far in such instances of severe abuse. Bradford was another example of this.

Did anyone else look into the widowhood rituals that the 2nd link mentioned. Horrendous.

I always find it unbelievable what we as humans are capable of