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News & politics

Female Genital Mutilation, now Breast Ironing young girls.

(58 Posts)
POGS Sun 10-Apr-16 13:08:58

I'm sick to death of reading/listening to news stories of physical abuse of young girls. We all know of Genital Mutilation but am I alone in never heard of BREAST IRONING?

Sky News is running coverage of yet another heinous abuse of young girls who endure ' Breast Ironing ', the pounding and massaging of pubescent girls breasts using 'hard' and ' heated' objects to try and stop breast development or make them disappear. .For goodness sake pure bloody barbarism, yet again. Well done Sky and those raising a voice to make it illegal in the UK.

This is predominantly an African issue, Cameroon but it is happening to young girls in the UK. I was so shocked I looked on google and I was shocked to see so much has been written and known about it. Well known UK newspapers over past years have written about breast ironing ' Where have I been'. I genuinely have not heard of it.

This makes me cry, thinking of my own 9 year old grandchild and the suffering some children and women live with . Why do we put with this in the UK? It must be stopped and as with Female Genital Mutilation the UK must make it clear it will not be tolerated here, it is physical abuse verging on torture. I have put a link up to the Sky News because others are too horrific to view.

news.sky.com/story/1675786/call-for-breast-ironing-to-be-criminal-offence

POGS Mon 11-Apr-16 19:50:32

I think t.v adverts would be good also. FGM and Breast Ironins are so horrific to watch I wonder how far they could go though.

shirleyhick Mon 11-Apr-16 20:19:51

I had not heard of it either it upset me just reading about it.

Jalima Mon 11-Apr-16 20:52:52

Me too, shirleyhick I feel quite sick at the thought.

It is GBH

POGS Tue 12-Apr-16 13:26:45

I was pleased to hear Jake Berry MP speak up about breast ironing in Parliament today during Foreign Office Questions . I was even more surprised by the response to hear he has been so vocal about it .

The momentum must be kept up. The link sums it up.

www.ibtimes.co.uk/breast-ironing-affects-least-1000-british-girls-some-young-10-tory-mp-warns-1551716

petra Tue 12-Apr-16 13:56:41

Great news POGS A public voice at long last.
I'm going to look up Jake Berry. I'm going to see if I can contact John Snow or Kathy Newman on channel 4. There're not afraid of broad casting ' difficult subjects, unlike our sainted BBC who have only just brought themselves to say the word immigration.

rosesarered Tue 12-Apr-16 17:04:47

There seems to be a distinct lack of interest in this subject POGS, I wonder why?
Not so much on here, but in RL.I came across this terrible practice some time ago, but think because it is an African culture issue ( not really!) not a lot of people care about it.With the spotlight more on it nowadays, I hope prosecutions will happen when it's done to younger girls at least.

nigglynellie Tue 12-Apr-16 18:19:08

As has been said, no one in authority will ever this by the scruff of the night, just like the Muslim ladies! simply because they risk being accused of racism, sexism, and anything else you can think of, probably whipped up by certain media outlets, and minority groups. It's just awful what these girls have to suffer in the name of political correctness, and quite frankly the cowardice of people who could do something about it.