Young girls in Africa are oppressed with various means to avoid rape and pregnancy (Photo)

She was only 28 years old, ready to be a grandmother, and the oldest of her five daughters was pregnant at the age of 14. She was set to keep her other daughters to make the same mistake, so last November in a village near Bafoussam in Cameroon, she brought her 10-year-old and 7-year-old to level their breasts.

She took a stone the size of her palm, which is normally used to print herbs, crush it on the breasts of her daughters and massage her for 10 minutes, while the other girl seems nervous. Egyptian photographer Heba Khamis had recently visited Cameroon, where she traveled to many villages and towns to talk to women and girls whose breasts had been ironed out, which is a futile attempt to prevent the growth of young breasts, said “Newsweek”, broadcast Periscope.

The practice of ironing the breasts takes on different shapes, some tie a belt to tie their breasts, while others heat a millstone, a wooden plow, and then use them to crush their breasts. Victims of this torture are usually the children of the feminine gender of the ages of 8 and 12.

Rebecca Tapscott, a post-doctor at the Geneva Institute Democratic Centre of Albert Hirschmann, who has researched what she prefers to call the impassionment of the bay, says Cameroon's women describe it as “back to where it came from”.

Studies have looked at the short or long-term effects of breast ironing, doctors told Tapscots that practice can cause infections, bumps, and other problems. Almost a quarter of women in Cameroon submit to this practice.

Since these procedures are very painful, however, mothers of young girls say they try to protect them. In African countries the phenomenon of young pregnancies is very easy, and many mothers use the ironing of their young daughters' breasts to prevent pregnancy.

They also claim that the sexual maturity of young girls is delayed by grounding the breasts and the risks of sexually raping them are reduced.

Iron, which levels girls' breasts, many believe, can help protect girls in a society that lacks sexual education at home and at school, where contraceptives are unpopular and abortion is illegal./Periscopi/