At least, it's not genital mutilation

Breast ironing tools

A nationwide campaign is under way in Cameroon to discourage the widespread practice of "breast ironing" which affects 26% of girls at puberty [http://tinyurl.com/fgfk7]

This involves pounding and flattening the developing breasts of young girls with objects such as wooden pestles, used for pounding tubers in the kitchen. Heated bananas and coconut shells are also used as «irons».

The reason some mothers would submit their daughters to such painful experience is to protect them from unwanted interest from boys and men. Some girls willingly flatten their own breasts so that they could complete their studies and not be forced into early marriage as is the practice in their village.

Apparently, the victims do have protection under the law, as long as the matter is reported within a few months. If a medical doctor determines that damage has been caused to the breasts, then the person responsible can go to jail for up to three years.

This does not always deter mothers who see their daughters hitting puberty earlier and earlier thanks to better living standards. But the Association of Aunties hopes their campaign will start to change attitudes and spare other girls future physical and emotional pain.

Of course, the obvious question is: if boys and men are the problem, why punish the girls? But as we say in French: poser la question, c'est y répondre, in other words: to ask the question is to give the answer.

And the answer is that, in mysoginistic cultures, women are always punished for men's shortcomings. They have to cover themselves up because men are incapable of controlling their lust if they get a peek of a woman's hair. Women must submit themselves to a curfew at night because some men are rapists. Women must pound their boobs in because curves might give men ideas. Female adulterers must be stoned to death because some men get tired of their wives. A woman who has been raped is to be blamed because she must have provoked the assault somehow, by the way she dressed or walked or talked, in other words, she asked for it.

Here's an idea: we could lock up men who behave like animals in rut at the sight of a woman, since I'm sure that most men can look at a woman without drooling and going on a rampage. We could also lock up all men at night, so that women can go out and not be worried about the small percentage of men who are rapists. Similarly, if a man get mugged or robbed, we could just shrug and blame him for walking around while carrying a wallet or wearing a watch or expensive sneakers, in other words, he asked for it. Wouldn't it be more logical, more rational, not to mention more equitable, to punish the wicked and reward the innocent?

Yeah, right.