For most children, their birthday is a time of celebration. But that was not the case for Mirabel when she turned 10.

For Mirabel, a Cameroonian refugee living in Nigeria, turning 10 marked the start of gruelling daily torture - having her breasts ironed with hot stones by her mother.

Every morning, a neighbour from the refugee community where she lives in Ogoja, in Nigeria's southeastern Cross River State, holds her legs firmly in place while her mother takes a burning hot pestle straight from the fire and presses it against her daughter's chest in an attempt to flatten her breasts.

The procedure can be repeated for months, or even years, and is intended to either stop young girls developing breasts or to flatten them once they have.

"It feels like they are placing real fire on my breasts," Mirabel says. "I have been in pain since the first day."

Gender-based violence
Her mother, Angela, says the pain and discomfort her daughter is enduring worries her less than the reports she has heard of teenage girls being sexually harassed or exploited by men. She is determined to focus her efforts on making her daughter less desirable to men.

"I just don't want her to become a target of boys around her," says Angela. "I'm aware that many boys here like to chase after little girls."

Although many of the families Al Jazeera spoke to mentioned the vulnerability of young girls growing up as refugees as one of the reasons for their decision to iron their daughters' breasts, the practice has been happening in Cameroon for generations.

The origin of the practice is unclear, but about a quarter of women in Cameroon have undergone breast ironing, according to research by Gender Empowerment and Development (GeED), a non-governmental organisation based in Yaounde, Cameroon, which found that in nearly 60 percent of cases, the procedure is carried out by mothers.

The United Nations has described breast ironing as one of the most under-reported crimes associated with gender-based violence. It is thought to affect 3.8 million women globally.

'No girl is safe here'
Like many other refugees in Cross River State, Mirabel and Angela fled the southwestern Cameroonian town of Akwaya for Nigeria after fighting broke out between government forces and English-speaking separatists who complain that they have been marginalised in the majority French-speaking country. The conflict has forced some 500,000 people from their homes and created a humanitarian crisis in the region.

According to the latest figures from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), Nigeria currently hosts more than 50,000 refugees from Cameroon, with 70 percent of these in Cross River State. Roughly half the refugees live in one of four refugee settlements, while the rest live in host communities.

Angela and her daughter arrived in Ogoja in February 2018, joining thousands of other refugees taking shelter in the Adagom and Okende host communities where women and girls have reported being sexually harassed by members of the host communities as well as by other refugees.

"These days, you cannot step out of the house without meeting a man who is demanding sex or inviting you to his home," says Queen, a 17-year-old girl who fled the southwestern Cameroonian border town of Mamfe with her parents for Adagom. "No girl is safe here."

More than 12 Cameroonian girls living in settlements in Adagom and Okende told Al Jazeera that they are regularly sexually harassed by men.

"I needed money to buy sanitary pads, so I went to ask a man [in the community] for help but he started touching me as soon as I walked up to him," says Lydia, a 16-year-old girl who lives in the Adagom refugee settlement. "I ran away as he tried to drag me to him."

Worried about the safety of their 13-year-old daughter, Helen and her husband made the decision to iron her breasts after she reported that a man whose home she cleans regularly touched her inappropriately.

"The harassment she faced made our decision [to iron her breasts] easier," explains Helen, who fled Akwaya and lives in the Okende host community with her family. "All we did was for her own good."

But, Salome Gambo, a senior protection specialist at the Caprecon Development and Peace Initiative, which is based in Abuja but works on child protection in refugee camps across northeast Nigeria, says: "This practice just ends up harming children and putting them at risk of severe complications. Families should rather channel their efforts towards educating their daughters on sex issues."

'Survival sex'
The refugee families' fears for their daughters are not unfounded. Female refugees and displaced people in Nigeria are at high risk of sexual harassment and exploitation. The UN has said it is aware

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/girl-safe-mothers-ironing-daughters-breasts-200128130832821.html

Madness

This is evil under the son. women dey suffer sha.

I think it's high time dis people abolish all dis old system .. even with ironed breast does who would show interest and chase her would chase her .. stop hurting the little girl all in d name of protecting her

Haaaaaaaa iron breast ke

Omololaeni:
Haaaaaaaa iron breast ke

Flat tyre tinz
Make them look unattractive just like FGM

Did they do an analysis of girls with normal breasts chased by men viz a viz the flattened ones.

The idea of solving temporary issues with permanent solutions doesn't sit well with me.

As for complaining that the men don't help without wanting sex: what do they expect?

The community is obviously poverty ridden so the men hustle very hard for the little money they have.

How do the women expect the men(not relatives or husbands) to give them a scarce commodity without anything in return?

A rich man can afford to give an unrelated lady money for free to boost him ego (he is still getting something not just sex).

A man who worked hard for him money/poor can't. He needs to exchange his scarce commodity for something that gives him pleasure and makes parting his resources worthwhile.

The women can also hustle and make their own money.

So what will they achieve after flattening the glands?

What will the lady use to breastfeed her child in the future?

That's terrible. They really need enlightenment.

.

Weird!!!

bukatyne:
Did they do an analysis of girls with normal breasts chased by men viz a viz the flattened ones.

The idea of solving temporary issues with permanent solutions doesn't sit well with me.

As for complaining that the men don't help without wanting sex: what do they expect?

The community is obviously poverty ridden so the men hustle very hard for the little money they have.

How do the women expect the men(not relatives or husbands) to give them a scarce commodity without anything in return?

A rich man can afford to give an unrelated lady money for free to boost him ego (he is still getting something not just sex).

A man who worked hard for him money/poor can't. He needs to exchange his scarce commodity for something that gives him pleasure and makes parting his resources worthwhile.

The women can also hustle and make their own money.

I remember you were one of the reasons I joined Nairaland !
Always apt unapologetically.
I wonder why some women cannot work to fend for themselves in some cases their kid(s).

Whether perky boobs or flat tyres , nothing goes for nothing .
Ignorance shouldn't be a reason for stupidity .

Modified : For those quoting me. I said and I mean , please train your daughter(s) to be financially capable and responsible for themselves .
If you can't train them in school (if there's no funds) ,you can make them learn a trade or acquire a good skill or something.

I have met few Ogoja's girls working as maids mostly .
Woman no go school ,e no get handiwork ,no nothing and you expect men not to want to take advantage?(I'm definitely not talking about rapists)

What else would she be bringing to the table aside Boobs and coochie ?

.

.

Very annoying tradition

poshestmina:




I remember you were one of the reasons I joined Nairaland !
Always apt unapologetically.
I wonder why some women cannot work to fend for themselves in some cases their kid(s).

Where perky boobs or flat tyres , nothing goes for nothing .
Ignorance shouldn't be a reason for stupidity .

Thanks a lot dear.

Hopefully, the women do a lot of introspection and pull out of the mess.

How about taking some definite action against the abusers rather than make an innocent girl suffer just for being female? Na wa!

They are busy ironing breast, will they also iron the ass? Some teenage girls ass is big and attractive.

This is demonic and barbaric act.

wickedness

Picture or.....?

breast wey some people dey find...
this life self

haaa

my breasts


but wait ooo. This topic was written since February

WTF
Awon were

Surprisinly, it also happens in the UK

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hundreds-british-mums-breast-ironing-7726899.amp

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While Tacha bin dey look for how her breast go stand
Bet this news don tey na