While browsing through the news sites on the web this
past week I came across a rather disturbing article (see
Breast Ironing on the following page). The article tells of a
practice forced upon millions of helpless little girls. I had
never heard of this before and it never ceases to amaze me
how many ways people in this world find to mutilate little
girls — all “for their own good”. This particular practice
destroys the girls breasts.
The excuse offered for the practice is a fear the girl will be
sexual harassed or raped because of her developing
breasts. I really have to wonder which is truly worse —
being raped by a stranger or being systematically tortured
by your mother (or other female relative) over the course
of six to twelve months? You MIGHT be raped, but it is a
100% fact that you will have to live with mutilated breasts
for the rest of your life, and possibly never be able to
breast feed your child.
Female genital mutilation (the removal of part, or all, of
the female genitalia) is one more horrible ordeal millions
of women suffer through.
I have to really wonder about all these “traditions”, and I
keep asking myself why are women inflicting these
practices on their own daughter, especially after going
through these same horrors themselves. After all, they
have first hand experience of not only the physical effects,
but also the psychological effects these practices create. I
imagine both effects are equally great. So why do they do
it? I seem to come to the same conclusions every time —
fear.
What sort of fear? Fear that they will be beaten in the
streets by men. Fear that a man will rape them. Fear that
a man will not marry them. These women live in fear of
men. Even in our own society every female has this fear
to some degree, mostly depending on the situation. I
don’t think most men can even begin to understand the
sorts of fear women live under — although I do think
many try. (Please don’t think this column is meant to be
“man-bashing” in any way.) I feel lucky to have been
raised by a man who completely respects women and I
have a husband with the same values.
What are the solutions? I don’t know them all, but I do
know education of both women AND men is the place to
start. Yet, we can’t ignore the “500 pound gorilla in the
room” — religion. Until we stop allowing people to use
religion as an excuse for abusive behavior, nothing will
truly change.
The survey of more than 5,000 girls and
women aged between 10 and 82 from
throughout Cameroon, published last month,
estimated that 4 million women in the central
African country have suffered the process.
The practice is most common in the Christian
and animist South of the country, rather than
in the Muslim North and Far North provinces,
where only 10 percent of women are affected.
— Breast Ironing, Reuters
All this is another way of trying to control a woman’s
sexuality. Throughout history, and continuing today there
seems to be a fear of female sexuality. Most of this fear
seems to come from the inability of a male to control
himself. Just look at (as Bill Maher like to call them) the
“Beekeeper Suits” that many Moslem woman are forced
to wear. Why? Well, it’s simple, if a man saw a woman
he would lose control of himself. It seems rather obvious
to me that it is the MAN who needs to be controlled!
The real excuse offered for this form of female sexual
control is: “it’s part of our religion”. They then expect us
to respond positively. As long as you mention god it’s
okay for you to do what you like! Even questioning
someone’s “religious customs” often gets a violent
reaction.
Imagine if some white nation kept their
black population in a beekeeper’s suit. The
UN would have a riot. Jesse Jackson’s head
would explode. They get away with it by
invoking religion. We like our women to
tease us to the nth degree; they’re like, “If we
can’t have the pussy, we don’t want to see
any of it. Throw a tarp over it!”
— Bill Maher
Female Genital Mutilation
An estimated 135 million of the world’s girls
and women have undergone genital
mutilation, and two million girls a year are at
risk of mutilation — approximately 6,000 per
day. It is practised extensively in Africa and
is common in some countries in the Middle
East. It also occurs, mainly among immigrant
communities, in parts of Asia and the Pacific,
North and Latin America and Europe.
In many societies, an important reason given
for FGM is the belief that it reduces a
woman’s desire for sex, therefore reducing
the chance of sex outside marriage. The
ability of unmutilated women to be faithful
through their own choice is doubted. In
many FGM-practising societies, it is extremely
difficult, if not impossible, for a woman to
marry if she has not undergone mutilation.
— Amnesty International
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Angela C. Byers
Copyright © 1996 - 2006 Angela C. Byers