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An iron or stick is one of the hottest tools used to massage teen breasts
The subjects of these operations are teenagers who are not allowed to grow up until the age of 10 because most of them have already started to have their breasts opened, and these breast ironing operations are called (breast ironing) or (breast flattening) and are done by some older women who specialize in this field as “defined by the African Health Organization (AHO).”
Al Jazeera published a report that included testimony from 27-year-old Elizabeth John, who said she was a refugee from Cameroon who grew up in Nigeria but would not forget the pain of breast augmentation surgery, even though it was done many years ago.
Elizabeth says she will never forget the day her life changed forever, when her mother forced her to have breast augmentation surgery to protect her from abuse by men or boys.
The AHO community said the company that is carrying out these activities wants to inject this paste on the breasts of teenagers so that the breasts are not visible and thus prevent girls from being attracted to men or boys. So they think that this will protect the girls from being raped, kidnapped or finding a husband in time but they can continue their education.
However, this culture has been condemned by health authorities and human rights groups as they consider it to be physical and mental abuse of children as it increases the number of people dropping out of school due to the pain caused by these activities.
According to the United Nations, adolescent female genital mutilation affects 3.8 million girls and women in Africa and is one of the five most commonly reported crimes of sexual violence in the continent.
Statistics published in the Annals of Medical Research and Practice journal show that in Cameroon and parts of Nigeria, 25-50% of women are affected by the disease.
Elizabeth said she suffered constant breast pain, especially when she was 19, and she kept buying medication to relieve the pain, although her parents never believed it was due to her breast implants.
She said that when she married a man and got pregnant and had a child, the situation became worse because apart from the fact that she was always in pain and breastfeeding was labelled, they also asked her to put the child on her breast and she lost it due to her inability and the child died at just four months old.
Ushakuma Michael Amineka, a gynaecologist at the Benue State Teaching Hospital, explained that the practice of breast augmentation injections among teenagers has long-term consequences.
He said: “Immediate side effects include breast pain because the breast is a very tender body, other side effects are during breastfeeding because sometimes the breast can be damaged and suffer infections and ulcers, which do not appear when a person is giving birth or pregnant. Fatherhood comes quietly.
David Godswill, one of Nigeria’s leading human rights activists, said: “These practices are culturally based, appalling and inhumane. Those who do it believe that it prevents breast development so that girls will not be attracted to men, but in reality it is barbaric. It causes trauma to women and girls and a constant sense of shame about their bodies. What they are doing is terrible and most of them have been affected for the rest of their lives.”
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