German, Cameroonian Advocacy Groups Launch 'Breast Ironing' Awareness Campaign

The German cooperation agency GTZ and the Cameroonian nongovernmental organization Network of Aunties, which supports young women with children, have launched a campaign warning that the practice of "breast ironing" can stunt girls' natural development and is dangerous and ineffective, IRIN News reports.

According to IRIN News, breast ironing involves massaging breasts of young girls with a stone, hammer or heated spatula to make them disappear and prevent sexual advances of boys and men (IRIN News, 8/27). People who perform the practice in Cameroon could go to jail for up to three years if a physician determines the breasts have been damaged (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 6/26/06). However, about 24% of girls in Cameroon have had their breasts ironed, including up to 53% of girls in the coastal Littoral province, a recent GTZ survey found. According to the survey, about 3.8 million young girls are at risk of undergoing the practice.

Flavien Ndonko, an anthropologist with GTZ's German-Cameroon HIV/AIDS health program, said that the practice has negative health consequences and is ineffective as a form of sex education. Many young girls and women with children have said they had their breasts ironed, which "clearly proves" that the practice does not work as pregnancy prevention, Ndonko said. According to IRIN News, girls and women ages 13 to 25 account for one-third of unintended pregnancies in the country.

Ndonko said that because parents are often uncomfortable discussing sex with their children, they "prefer to get rid of the bodily signs of sexuality." Because sex is not discussed openly, girls often are unaware of how to prevent pregnancy, or HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, Bessem Arrey Ebanga Bisong, executive secretary of Network of Aunties, said. GTZ and Network of Aunties' breast ironing awareness campaign has generated discussion about the practice, Ndonko said. "This is a good way to resolve the problem: people talk about it and ask why it is being done," she said, adding, "As there is no way to justify [the practice] ... hopefully, they will stop doing it" (IRIN News, 8/27).

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