This Brutal Practice Of Ironing Girls' Chests With Hot Stone Is Becoming Prevalent In UK As A ‘Cultural Norm’
Another such brutal practice has started gaining ground in the United Kingdom. As per local and international media an African practice of “ironing” a girl’s chest with hot stone to delay breast formation is spreading in the United Kingdom.
A Guardian investigation brought to light anecdotal evidence on the same. Reportedly, a thousand girls and women in the kingdom have been subjected to this ‘painful’ practice. According to the publication, around 15-20 cases were discovered in south London’s Croydon town alone.
In the ironing practice, mothers, aunties or even grandmothers use a hot stone to massage across the girl’s breast repeatedly in order to break the tissue and stop its growth. It is done sometimes once in a week or once every two weeks depending on the outcome.
According to mothers and grandmothers, the practice is used to avoid unwanted male attention, sexual harassment and rape. According to IANS, the United Nations has described the practice as one of five global under-reported crimes relating to gender-based violence.
Medical experts and activists consider it as an abusive and futile practice, or even child abuse. The practice could have serious health implications for young women such as physical and psychological scars, infections, inability to breastfeed, deformities and breast cancer.
The Guardian spoke to one of the women who admitted that she started massaging her daughter’s chest at the first sign of puberty. “I took the stone, I warmed it, and then I started massaging [my daughter’s chest],” she was quoted as saying by the publication.
Once the girl developed bruises, the mother was questioned by the police. British-Somali anti-FGM campaigner and psychotherapist Leyla Hussein reportedly said that the victims that she encountered were all British citizens. A former nurse admitted to seeing the numbers of such women growing in the developed country.
The British police was criticized for having knowledge of these practices but not fielding any action against them. Nyuydzewira, who was herself subjected to the abuse as a girl said that British authorities were not taking any action because they think it is a “cultural practice”.
FGM is another such practice which is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. According to WHO, It is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children. The practice also violates a person's rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death.