文字通り"Breast Ironing"

アフリカ中部にあるカメルーン共和国には"Breast Ironing"という風習がある。文字通り、自分の娘の胸に焼いた石を押し当てるというものだ。それは、しかもウィッチハンティングや懲罰行為などではない。

The brutal Cameroonian practice -- which we've written about before -- is the focus of a chilling Current video report, which you'll find below. A hot stone is pressed against a young girl's chest or an object is used to beat the tissue, all in hopes of preventing breasts from developing and attracting men's advances. As is often the case with rituals that do permanent harm to girls' bodies (think: female genital mutilation), it's meant to protect girls -- from sexual assault and the threat of underage pregnancy, which is on the rise in Cameroon.

残忍なカメルーンの風習が、下のCurrentの動画リポートの焦点だ。胸の成長を押しとどめ、男たちの興味を惹かないようにと、熱い石を若い女性の胸に押し付けるか、何からのものを使って生体組織を打つ。他の儀式同様に、これは少女の身体に恒久的な傷痕を残す。これは、カメルーンで増大中の性的暴行や妊娠の脅威から少女を守るためのものである。

[Tracy Clark-Flory:"Breast ironing: Today in depressing" (2010/07/22) on Salon]

Currentの製作した動画がこれ：

2006年には、この"Breast Ironing"をやめようという運動があった。

A nationwide campaign is under way in Cameroon to discourage the widespread practice of "breast ironing"

[Randy Joe Sa'ah: "Cameroon girls battle 'breast ironing'" (2006/06/23) on BBC]

しかし、それは実を結ぶことはなく、今も、"Breast Ironing"は続けられている。我が子への愛の故に。

To understand what would drive a mother to press a hot stone into her daughter's chest, I talked to local women, girls, physicians and community organizers. Despite the pain and fear, many of the women and girls involved in breast ironing considered it a normal treatment for early breast development. Mothers told me they forcibly try to eliminate signs of puberty to protect their preteen girls from HIV and pregnancy. One mother explained that she did it out of love.

[Jamie Rich: "Breast ironing, a painful practice for Cameroon's girls" (2010/03/04) on Washington Post]