Female Genital Mutilation, now Breast Ironing young girls.

Yes I have heard of it, probably in Woman's Hour or similar a good few years ago. I agree, disgusting. It's strange these cultures don't chop bits off the men to protect girls.

I don't think we do "put up with it". Surely it would be child abuse, which is already very illegal!

I read about it a few weeks ago and couldn't believe what I was reading! It's just appalling, and must do a tremendous amount of damage to the development of young girls? I don't quite know what to say except that in the UK it must be extremely illegal and can hopefully be eradicated.

As far as I can see there is no specific law against FGM; and I guess this is the same with this latest piece of barbarism. Presumably this is already covered by the laws that cover grievous bodily hard etc. Load of bloody loonies - makes you despair.

Jingle

That's the point it isn't illegal practice in the UK, yet. It is happening in the UK.

I dislike petitions as a rule but were there a current petition it would be one I would most certainly sign up to. All political parties should find the will to work together to make it illegal in the UK sooner rather than later and the government should take action, just as they should do over FGM which saw the law updated in the Serious Crime Act 2015.

There must be the will to stop this barbarity. I worry there is so little attention over this matter .

Dreadful. The health damage must be appalling. All these barbarians are to stop girls being attacked by horrible men and boys so why not strap them up from a young age? They are the perpetrators not the poor girls.

POGS Much as it hurts me to say: we can't stop this barbarity. It's been in our country too long and all the authorities who could do something turn a blind eye because of 'cultural sensitivities.'
Just the same as forcing your daughter to marry her first cousin knowing that her chances of having a severely disabled child is wrong. But there you go, too late now, the stable door has been opened for too long.

Petra

I fear you are correct. My problem is now we are more aware of FGM and Breast Ironing if the UK government and our politicians do not make both illegal, FGM is, then shame on them all. I hope this latest attempt to raise the subject doesn't loose traction but again I fear it will, just look at how many have posted regarding it on here. I hope Sky really go to town on this and keep the momentum up and the British press take up the issue again.

How the hell did we become so b----y impotent in the UK we let 'cultural sensitivities' become more important than protecting children from inhumane behaviour? Some dislike the term 'political correctness' being used but ye gods what else has caused us to basically show complicity by our inaction to report it/ prosecute those who do it.

POGS Votes, simple as. Blair allowed thousands of uneducated people from Pakistan and India knowing that they would be easy to manipulate.
Local political activists would get the local leaders on side with all sorts of ' sweeteners' and provided the the votes were produced, nothing would be said about the 'cultural differences' Don't forget many of these people couldn't speak or read English.

What? POGS you're not alone, I'd not heard of BI before.

Thankfully a lot of the Muslim community are becoming aware of the first cousin problem Re birth defects.

Bugger cultural sensitivities - this is GBH and child abuse and we already have the laws to stamp on it and must do so with a vengeance.

Well get the word out there, all of you. Apologies if that sounded a bit strong but I'm sick to the bloody teeth of all softly softly approach.
Contact your MP. Educate him/her, because you can be sure most of them have never heard of breast ironing.

I hope that is true petra. In Birmingham the special schools had l lot of children who had cousin parents. Also the disabled children were married off to some young girs from villages back home who did not know who she was marrying.

Lullydully Read up on it. It will shock you rigid. This is another 'cultural issue' that we don't talk about. As if it's not bad enough that we have all these children suffering when it's so easy to stop, it's costing this country millions in disability payments.

It isn't so easy to stop though, petra. Just as FGM isn't easy to stop. Look how many prosecutions there have been for that.

Ana it's all mutilation

Yes. But still not 'so easy' to stop. How would you go about doing that?

Education might help, but meanwhile.......

Ana Well, for a start, talk about it whenever you feel you can. Get the word out there. Just here on this forum we have spread the word, it's like a butterfly's wing.
I personally donate to a charity called * Forward* These charities are so poor, so even if people only donated £5 it's a help.

What is it with sex with these people? They seem obsessed with it.

I agree that every little helps, petra, but I still dispute your claim that these practices are 'so easy to stop'.

It goes on in secret, the people that do it to these poor young girls believe it's the right thing to do and it's going to be very. very difficult to change the mindset of their culture.

Thank you for giving the name of the charity, I'll certainly have a look at the website.

Ana Sorry if i confused anyone by saying "easy to stop" I was referring to the birth defects caused by marrying first cousins.

Ana

It is known of and schools, doctors, hospitals must surely to God see these cases .

As I have said the government updated the FGM Law in 2015 and it must look at including Breast Ironing and any other barbaric cultural procedures. Social Workers/Hospitals/Doctors must report cases if and when they see them and the law enforcement must prosecute and b----r political correctness or worry about upsetting those of a different culture. It is ridiculous we even read this is happening. What a state of affairs .