While reaching the age of puberty is a thing of joy to many female children, ‘puberty is pain’ for many others, especially those born in Pygba Sama, Kpaduma and other indigenous communities in Abuja, parts of Niger State, and the Camerounian communities of Cross River State. Their source of pain is the barbaric act called breast ironing.

Also known as bosom flattening, breast sweeping or breast grinding, the process involves the use of heated objects, including spatula, pestle, bunch of broom head, shard of calabash, grinding stones, hammer or any handy instrument to pound or massage these girls’ breasts twice a day.

This process lasts for four to six months or more, pending when the breasts is seen to have flattened. By then, the fatty tissues and lobules of the breasts would have disappeared or melted to a point they can no longer come up again, until the young women in question have past age of puberty and may be married.

And for parents that cannot see their daughters cry endlessly or writhe in pains as a testament of the painful operation, they go for the easier way out. They make their daughters to either tie broad belt or tick cloth tightly across their breasts. These materials remain on the girls’ chests until the breast buds disappear.

Carried out by the girls’ relatives­­­ — grandmother, mother, sister, aunty or any female guardian — in secrecy, and sometimes, as part of the traditional initiation rites of the girl child into puberty stage of life, investigations revealed that any girl that did not pass through this drill is at the mercy of the local predators, and most times, isolated from other girls of her age. The mother will also be ridiculed for encouraging indecency.

To avoid this shame, many mothers have either persuaded or forced their daughters into the barbaric act. They make it appear to the girls as a mandatory practice that must be carried out for their own good.

Findings revealed that one in every three girls within the age bracket of eight and 14 in Pygba Sama and Kpaduma communities have done it and there is a very high propensity that over 70 per cent of the remaining two-third will do it before they clock 14.

A Benue State-based children and gender-based activist, Benjamin Ocheche, puts the figure of girls that have undergone breast ironing from 2020 to 2024 at over two million across the country, saying the major challenge with recording the data is that the practice is shrouded in secrecy. This picture is generally applicable to other communities where the harmful practice is rampant.

However, the United Nations (UN) recent data put young women that have been breast ironed at 3.8 million. The agency said the practice is one of the five under-reported gender-based crimes.

Affirming UN’s stand, the Coordinator of Girdle Advocacy Projects, Sylvia Chioma, whose organisation is among the frontline groups that are sensitising people against the harmful practice, said breast ironing is very prevalent in Nigeria.

According to Chioma, “the practice is very rampant, but under-reported or never-reported because it is a tradition,” adding that many victims often stomach the pain and remain silent, as they have been brain washed into believing that the practice is done for their own protection.

Although the origin of the practice is obscure, adherents believe the operation will make these pubescent girls unattractive to their male admirers, and as such, not likely going to be sexually harassed or suffer teen or adolescent pregnancy.

The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) disclosed that breast ironing, an unhealthy practice, is also carried out in African countries like Chad, Benin, Togo, Guinea Bissau, South Africa, Guinea-Conakry, among others.

The Victims
For Madam Fadimatu Danasabe, whose niece had just suffered from this bitter tradition, breast ironing is one of the ills carried out by women against the girl child. Aside from being painful, it is a harmful practice that can send these pubescent into trauma and also destroy their sexual lives.

Revealing that the practice is sometimes carried out by the girls’ mothers or elderly women in the family, she noted that breast ironing is a cultural thing and any girl that has not undergone the process, is considered amoral, adding that women in the family meet secretly to carry out this operation on any girl in their family they notice has started developing breast buds.

“It is a known tradition and no man dare challenge it. In a situation where a man challenges it, such man is called unprintable names and even accused of wanting to secretly give out his daughter to any of his friends in marriage. Owing to this, no man would want to stand against these women’s venom or accusations, so, even when the men have full knowledge of the practice, they pretend not to be aware of it.

“I watched my little niece cry out her eyes in pains and writhing on the ground, hoping I will come to her rescue, but I was as hopeless and helpless as she was. The elderly women carried out the massaging and hitting, as if their lives depended on it. They did not spare the girl as they pressed the heated stone on her forming breasts one after the other. At a point, I could not resist it, so, I went to a corner to weep. The process was repeated the following day, but this time, it was not as harsh as the first. I learnt the process would go on for four to six months when the fat would have gone off and the breast flattened,” she said.

According to Danasabe, traditional Kpaduma women believe that men are easily attracted to the budding breasts of young girls, and because of this, they sexually abuse them, stressing that the local women had to adapt breast flattening as a measure to save their girls from harassment, including early or under-aged marriage.

“Women that allow their girls to go through this practice see it as a way of overcoming the excesses of their men; so, they are doing it for the love of the girl child without knowing that their actions are detrimental to the health and sexual lives of their daughters. But if the truth must be told, I will ask: why must our harmless girls be punished because they have grown breast, which is a natural feature of their femininity? Why is the society making the girls to suffer for the inability of the menfolk to come up with laws, rules and cultural principles that will inhibit randy men from frolicking with minors?

“Our girls must surely grow breasts before becoming women and parents must be happy for this, because it is one of the signs showing she has moved away from childhood. The non-governmental groups, advocacy societies and religious organisations should partner to proffer solutions and save our girls from this horrible practice,” she said.

Hadiza Danaladi, a Gbagyi native from Niger State and a victim of breast ironing, disclosed that she was raped and became pregnant while she was 18 years old and had to relocate from her community to Lagos.

Now 32 years, the single mother revealed the practice has not stopped rape, sexual harassment, early marriage or teenage pregnancy, adding that it has rather killed the sex life of its victim.

She added: “This practice is antithesis to the well-being of the female child. It is one of the practices that demean the girl child and put the boy child as being superior. It is killing and women organisations should rise against it.”

According to her, becoming a woman and adult, she began to see men as beasts, because she was told that men would devour her if her breasts were allowed to develop.

“I was traumatised when my breasts were not like others. Although, I was told it would not stop me from having children, I was actually ashamed of myself each time I took my bath or stood naked before a mirror. This is because one of my breasts is big and saggy, while the other is very small. I don’t event feel that the small one exists. This opposite size makes me to detest my childhood experience.

“I even had challenge breastfeeding my baby; the small breast was bringing out milk in droplets, while the nipple of the bigger one was destroyed, so, I did not breastfeed my baby — I had to depend on baby food. I, sometimes, experience pus and some fluid come out from my breasts, which stain my blouse and produce embarrassing odour. I had to wear strong smelling perfume to suppress the odour; this was my story before I was treated,” she said.

Recalling her experience, Madam Helen Offiong, an indigene of Cross River State, whose breasts were ironed twice, while she was 11 and 14, disclosed that she almost lost faith in marriage while growing up because her two breasts were as small as a toddler’s fist with scare that looked like a cobweb on her chest.

According to her, because of this, she was always ashamed to remove her blouse in front of her husband and also frigid each time he touched her.

“This practice made me to initially lose interest in men, marriage and family. In fact, it almost cost my marriage too, until my husband’s family and mine intervened to save the situation.

“I must say, I am just coming to terms with the culture because our mothers engaged in the practice out of love for us. But must the girls be made to bear the cross of this harmful tradition? I thank God that the world is now beginning to talk about this ugly practice and I know it may take some time, the practice will surely be stopped,” she said.

Health Implications
On the implications when these girls finally settle down to having children, the medical director of So-fine Clinic and Diagnostic Centre, Isolo, Lagos, Dr. Joseph Omo-Emevor, disclosed that the practice is harmful, especially as it damages the child’s social and psychological well being.

Omo-Emevor disclosed that the instruments used to carry out the operation may not be sterilised and the after effect of the operation might expose the girls to infection, abscesses, tissue damage and dissymmetry of the breasts, saying the operation could affect the glandular tissue, which is that part of the breasts that produces milk and may make the girls to find it difficult to produce milk when they give birth.

According to the medical director, women produce four major breast hormones — oestrogen, progesterone, prolactin and oxytocin — in puberty, during pregnancy and after delivery, adding that if the development of the breast is suppressed early in life, as with bosom flattening, this might lead to the accumulation of these hormones, thereby, causing multiple health challenges to the would-be mother and her child.

Revealing that some of the problems that may come with this include stunted growth for the girl whose breast has been flattened, excess weight, fibroids, cancer, infertility, high blood pressure at an early age, the medical practitioner added that itching and discharge of milk when not lactating, dissymmetry of the breasts, cysts, breast infections and even the complete disappearance of one or both breasts could be traced to the harmful practice.

“There might also be a delay of breast milk development after giving birth and thereby endangering the life of newborns if help does not come on time,” he said.

Frowning at the practice, Omo-Emevor said breast flattening could as well cause breast tissue damage and the production of poisonous breast milk, which is dangerous to the newborn.

For the former Chairman, Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria, Lagos Chapter, and the Medical Director, Hamaab Medical Centre, Dr Tunji Akintade, not much laws have been made against breast ironing, saying it is, however, important to raise awareness about it due to its’ health issues.

He said: “ Breast ironing is similar to what we see in neonates, when you burn the cord after birth to bring about healing. That of breast ironing might be another myth against promiscuity as it is done on young adolescent. It has also been alleged to be predisposed to breast cancer; however, no correlative data have been seen. In some cases, thermal burns have been seen with their attending complications of infection, scar formation and contractures. With burns and its complications, the effect on lactation will depend on the extent of the burn.”

Akintade assured girls whose breasts have been burnt never to lose hope, saying there are chances of the breasts being restored to perform maximally, so far, the areola (the small circular area around the nipple) are not damaged or blocked.

“New ducts are formed when babies are born and once no damage is done on the areola region, lactation or breastfeeding might not be affected, so the girls can still have their babies and lead a normal life,” he said.

…The Way Out
Only recently, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pygba community in the FCT for the immediate stoppage of the practice in the community and its environs.

At the signing ceremony, the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, noted that the harmful practice was inimical to the natural development of the girl child and must be abolished.

Ocheche, however, said government should go beyond paper works to being pragmatic, by bringing offenders to book.

Disclosing that Nigeria is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and that since the former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan passed into law the Violence against Persons (Prohibiting) Act (VAPP Act) on May 25, 2015, violence against female has persisted, saying that this time around government has to put in more effort to curb these abuses and protect our women and the girl child.

Ocheche, therefore, wants government to begin the implementation of punishment for those that have contravene the VAPP Act.

According to him, the Act states: “A person who carries out harmful traditional practices on another commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a term of imprisonment not exceeding four years or to a fine not exceeding N500,000.00 or both.”

He said until government puts the law into action, those carrying out this harmful practice will not change their ways. He also enjoined stakeholders to first begin the change drive by kicking against child or under age marriage because mothers in the various communities resorted to the practice as a way of protecting their daughters from child marriage and from engaging in early life sensual activities induced by men.

“The practice goes beyond rape and child pregnancy, if we must all speak the truth to ourselves. Beneath breast ironing are more critical issues, which include child marriage and philandering. These women knew that they have little or no say in their husbands’ decision to give out their daughters in marriage, especially when the girl begins to have breasts, so, they adopted a strategy that would make the girls to look like under aged. This is to discourage suitors from taking away their daughters.

“These women are expressing their bitterness through this unwholesome practice without knowing that their weapon of change is detrimental to the health, social and even psychological well-being of their girls. So, while checking this practice, government should as well check the under laying causes,” he said.

For Dr. Lizzy Etuk, a psychiatrist and social commentator, there should be constant orientation and re-orientation programmes, and as well, other awareness programmes against breast ironing in the various communities, saying these programmes should begin from the grassroots to other parts of the state where the practice is prevalent.

She said: “The awareness or orientation programmes should begin from the traditional ruler’s homes to the various women’s groups, be it in the churches, mosques or market places, to make the women know the danger of what they are doing to their own children under the pretext of protecting them.

“It should as well be extended to the primary and secondary schools, include it in their curriculum in form of health and sex education; so that these girls, themselves, would be able to know more about their body parts and protect them. Everyone, including the boys and men, should be involved in it because it is about the wellbeing of the nation.”

For Opeyemi Olawale Owosibo, a sociologist and human capital development expert, people’s perceptions of individuals are influenced by a variety of factors, including cultural and societal norms, adding that while breast ironing is a harmful practice predominantly found in certain regions, it is important to recognise that girls who have not undergone this practice should not be judged or perceived differently based on this factor.

While saying every girl should be assessed based on who she is, Owosibo noted that breast ironing could, however, have psychological effects, as it often leads to the feelings of shame, low self-esteem and emotional trauma in the girls subjected to it.

He revealed that such practices highlight the power dynamics and intergenerational transmission of harmful practices within families and communities and called on parents to wake up to their responsibilities to care and protect their female children and also to shun harmful practices.