Girls being force-fed for marriage as junta revives fattening farms

[IndianaGreen]

Source: The Guardian

Girls being force-fed for marriage as junta revives fattening farms

Campaigners in Mauritania accuse the new military regime of turning a blind eye to a cult of obesity among young girls being groomed for suitors

Alex Duval Smith, Africa correspondent
The Observer, Sunday 1 March 2009

Fears are growing for the fate of thousands of young girls in rural Mauritania, where campaigners say the cruel practice of force-feeding young girls for marriage is making a significant comeback since a military junta took over the West African country.

Aminetou Mint Ely, a women's rights campaigner, said girls as young as five were still being subjected to the tradition of leblouh every year. The practice sees them tortured into swallowing gargantuan amounts of food and liquid - and consuming their vomit if they reject it.

"In Mauritania, a woman's size indicates the amount of space she occupies in her husband's heart," said Mint Ely, head of the Association of Women Heads of Households. ''We have gone backwards. We had a Ministry of Women's Affairs. We had achieved a parliamentary quota of 20% of seats. We had female diplomats and governors. The military have set us back by decades, sending us back to our traditional roles. We no longer even have a ministry to talk to." Mauritania has suffered a series of coups since independence from France in 1960. The latest, in August last year, saw General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz seize power after the elected president tried to sack him.

A children's rights lawyer, Fatimata M'baye, echoed Ely's pessimism. "I have never managed to bring a case in defence of a force-fed child. The politicians are scared of questioning their own traditions. Rural marriages usually take place under customary law or are overseen by a marabou (a Muslim preacher). No state official gets involved, so there is no arbiter to check on the age of the bride." Yet, she said, Mauritania had signed both international and African treaties protecting the rights of the child.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/01/mauritania-force-feeding-marriage

[Triana]

1. In just two minutes I've seen threads about genital mutilation, and force-feeding girls...

...what the goddamn HELL are girls and women on this planet - cattle?

I'm SO SICK of this. Not slamming the OP - what I mean is I'm SICK of girls and women being considered and treated like livestock, cattle, property.

HUMANS are supposed to be the most intelligent species on the planet?

I

DON'T

THINK

SO!!!

Too many of them are fucking NEANDERTHALS - and I'm SICK of them.

:grr:
:mad:
:puke:

[Tumbulu]

4. I agree with you!

It is horrible, and how we treat livestock is not much better.

We need to change all these behaviors, I say.

[Thothmes]

6. Why do you presume

that Neanderthals act in this manner.

[get the red out]

10. Such joy in destroying female bodies

It seems to be the final joy of the ignorant, destroy female bodies.

If women are not respected and play a part in all societies the human race won't survive. And frankly, when I read about the practices that destroy the bodies and freedoms of women and girls, I don't think the human race deserves to survive. We are pathetic. The planet should shed us and just start over.

[NashVegas]

33. We Do It Right Here In the US

http://www.cosmeticsurgery2.com/cs1-female.htm

Sometimes how a woman “perceives” how she looks in the vaginal region can mean devastating effects on her life. It can threaten her self-esteem, reduce her sexual desire and excitement, ruin her love life, or cause vaginal discomfort. ...

We even make a business out of it.

[Codeine]

35. You don't see the difference

between elective cosmetic surgery freely chosen by an adult woman and the forced, destructive, hateful mutilation of a teen girl's genitals? Really?

[NashVegas]

36. The Only Difference I Can See

Is that one group is physically forced to keep them from having too much pleasure, while the other is mentally conditioned to view themselves as inadequate for appearing to have already had any.

[LeftyMom]

37. It's paternalistic bullshit to suggest that adult women are not in control of their wants because

they are "mentally conditioned" to want things you don't think they should want.

My understanding is that most of these vaginal surgeries are to reduce unusually large labia in women who either find them unsightly, uncomfortable during sex, or both. And just as I'm totally in favor of a woman makes an educated choice to get a medical procedure, get laid or get pierced or tattooed, if she wants to get her labia trimmed I'll support her right to do whatever the hell she wants to her own body. Because supporting women means supporting their right to make informed, educated decisions for themselves, even if they're not the decisions I would make for my life and my body

[NashVegas]

38. They Don't Have a Porn-Ready Slit?

:rofl:

Tell me another one, please. No, really. This was an issue rarely, if ever, even heard of before the internet enabled free, widespread distribution of porn and the casual, rough even, discussion of intimate physical attributes that came in its wake. As a result, an industry that already thrives on insecurity has yet another cause to make us feel physically inadequate.

[LeftyMom]

39. It's a good thing women have you to tell them what to feel and want.

Right now I want breakfast. Could you please let me know if that's a product of the casual, rough discussion of hunger the internet and all of it's "what are you eating?" discussions have caused, or if I actually really want pancakes with real maple syrup and tempeh bacon, because I'm just a silly woman and I can't ever be sure my feelings about my body are my own without your help.

[annabanana]

2. How terribly sad.. . . .. . . . n/t

[Idealism]

3. That is sad to hear.

Mauritania has been under junta military-style rule for all but about 2 years since 1960. Those are some desperate people needing help :(

[whoneedstickets]

5. Improving the status of women: educationally, economically, socially..

..may be the single most powerful way to transform the world into a more peaceful, socially just place.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Q8M4lXmJJAgC&pg=PA137&lpg=PA137&dq=women+education+and+war-proneness&source=bl&ots=LXMgZlUeaq&sig=MfYV3g73AuEhuEsZ6opZvFEds_E&hl=en&ei=kOipSebuH4STngeo28jrDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result

[Bunkie0913]

7. WTF?

Have we not seen pictures of children literally starving to death in Africa? Now there are folks force feeding their young females for a better spouse?

[Bobbieo]

8. What is the religion of these female abusers. It must be extremely

conservative - like the Taliban

[iamjoy]

9. Muslim, I Believe

But I don't think that has anything to do with it. Well, at least it isn't directly related. And this is not meant to be a slam on Islam per se. I think most (if not all major religions) have at their core the idea that women are property.

[Sultana]

29. The practice isn't Islamic at all, it's cultural and downright creepy

:(

[Ecumenist]

12. This practise is VERY old, ANCIENT even.

It's practised in in parts of Africa, Asia and many other places throughout the wolrd. It's not new by any stretch of the imagination.

[Spangle]

14. Rich man's wife

Seen all around the world. At various times.

The 'tiny feet' of the Chinese women is part of the same look.

[Spangle]

11. Well, I must take up my Husbands whole heart....

"In Mauritania, a woman's size indicates the amount of space she occupies in her husband's heart,"

Not sure that is a good thing. Doesn't he need some room for blood and other stuff??

People are so stupid!

[Tab]

13. Generally (and don't think I'm condoning this)

but in many societies (ours included), males are valued because of their ability for physical labor, females are devalued because effectively they are drains on family resources in terms of food, and not contributing in terms of labor (in an agricultural society).

Now, in the States, that has evened out, but in many countries, it remains the norm. In many countries, in simple economic terms (and, again, I'm not defending this) females are viewed as a drain on family resources, not a benefit. The fact that you can perhaps marry one off is a boon to the family, to unload the female. This is why there have been dowrys - effectively the price a male family pays to get rid of their female. Some countries, like China, take this to extremes - most are more subtle about it, but still, it's the prevailing sentiment.

From a primitive self-preservation sort of view, it makes sense, but not really in this time and age, at least not in this country, but it's still true in many other places. We're not all as up-to-date as we'd like to think we are.

[Bobbieo]

15. If obesity for women is the norm over there, I doubt if many of them live past the age of 60.

I'll bet the death rate from heart related disorders is high among women. But what the hell, the old man can continue marital bliss with a younger fatty.

[Triana]

17. Well that attitude is out and out wrong

women are what give LIFE to the males - no women - no males - they all had mothers. If the mothers (women) are a drain on resources, then so are their sons since they are of the same flesh and blood - further, the sons are drains on the resources of the women - their bodies, their time and their work to care for them and raise them and clean their homes. And the sons are drains on the resources of the planet - as are all humans. We are parasites - as a species. If we were SMART, we'd be conserving resources and treating each other as equals and not damning HALF OF THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE to second-class or non-human citizenship on the basis of their sex. That's why I'm appalled that the topmost species on this planet is so damned ignorant.

This crap goes BEYOND being a women's issue - it's a HUMAN RIGHTS issue. All over the planet.

This shit needs to change. I don't give a rat about history or culture or economics. I DO give a damn about HUMAN RIGHTS and the disgusting HUMAN STUPIDITY that denies them to HALF the species because they're unfortunate enough to have been born female.

[Tab]

27. Again, I didn't say I was defending it, I was just stating it

Although, as a return argument, you're saying females produce sons (which is entirely correct), but a DAUGHTER in an AGRARIAN family isn't going to produce sons for that family. From their point of view, she's a liability. That's why they marry them off. She might be a singular asset to some OTHER family, but not her family of origination.

Now for ANOTHER family, or, specifically, a single male, she can be an asset, because she can produce sons. That's why they normally can at least get married and not killed. So she becomes an asset for that OTHER family, with the hope that she produces sons. If she produces daughters (and, YES, I know enough about genetics to know it's not up to her, but most societies unfamiliar with genetics blame it on the female), then HER daughters are a liability and the family needs to unload THEM.

And like I said, I'm not *defending* this, I'm just saying that historically this is how various societies look at it, and from a pure survival rate, it makes sense - go with the offspring that contribute positively to the family's survival and dump the ones that don't. Nowadays, in a more high-tech world, females contribute in terms of brain power, and pure physical ability (to do hard work) isn't the prime value any more, but that's a very RECENT understanding. Prior to this, and certainly in societies less inclined to intellectual work, this is how it goes. If you think about it, it's valid to the family. And, yes, in many cultures, it sucks to be female. I'm not justifying it, but that's the way the world has often worked. Things are changing. In leading countries, women are valued - some are often even leaders OF the country, literally (think Angela Merkel of Germany, Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, and so on) but not all societies are as progressive. You may not like it, but it is the history of the world, and the state of things in certain countries. I'm just explaining it, not defending it.

- Tab

[newspeak]

31. I believe in an agrarian society the division of labor

would be more equal. Eisner's "the Chalice and the Blade" argues that in ancient agrarian societies there tended to be more equality, whereas, pastoral societies were more male oriented. Her argument was that women were more valued BECAUSE their contribution to labor. Also, if you look at the Iroquois, where women's roles were elevated-men generally did the hunting, but women did the planting and harvesting and maintained the home. Therefore, I don't believe this practice culminates from an "agrarian" culture.

[unkachuck]

16. "The military have set us back by decades..."

....this is 2009, isn't it?

....hey, when do we make the human sacrifice and burn the witch?...isn't it strange that whenever or wherever fascists rule, society goes downhill?....and always, women and children suffer most.

[Triana]

18. women and children suffer first. women and children suffer most. women and children suffer longest..

...rather sad state of affairs.

[sendero]

19. Sickening..

... but god is surely looking out for the women and children,

[RyanClark]

20. My opinion

While force-feeding is fine in fantasy, I disagree with it in reality. Gaining weight should be someone's own decision and of their own will, and not forced upon them.

[Bette Noir]

21. How sad.

[Odin2005]

22. Words fail me...

Jesus Christ, kids should be treated like ducks force-fed for foie gras. :puke:

[Swede]

23. I watched a documentary awhile ago,the girls sit and drink milk all day.

Their mothers rapped hard on the knuckles with a stick if they complained or vomited. It was brutal.

[shanti]

25. that's it

the show i was referring to below. i didn't see them eating their vomit, but it was bad enough.

[shanti]

24. natgeo/disctv

had a show about this awhile ago, but i believe it was east africa, not west, so it appears that this belief spans the continent.

[christx30]

26. Well,

at least they aren't under a colonialist country like Britain or France :sarcasm: (that was for the benefit of the anti-colonialist DU members out there)

It's sickening what they do to women in those countries. Women aren't treated perfectly here, but it's a hell of a lot better here.
They need to be forced to change how they treat people

[Lost in CT]

28. This type of stuff predates Western civilizations influence.

(And by Western civilization I am including the muslims here.)

And by removing the hand of Western leadership it is no surprise countries revert to their stone age ways.

[ikojo]

30. At least in this country they want women to be large

enough to be seen...in the US women are not considered of any value unless they are so small they almost cannot be seen. Both attitudes are unhealthy for women of all ages. Girls in the US will starve themselves in order to adhere to some media construct of what passes for acceptable beauty.

[newspeak]

32. it may be a cultural thing

but if we take a look at perceptions of attractiveness-remember during the 1920's in the US, looking at glam magazines, women were more svelte--dresses were shorter-then the depression hit-hems drop and women are meatier. I believe in a time of scarcity-plumper women may be seen as more attractive--"healthier." Now, parts of Africa have had droughts, famine--and this cultural view may have originated because of famine. Of course, these force feedings are atrocious--what's next, the breeding farms?

[woo me with science]

34. But certainly not as traumatic as a cheese sandwich. nt

[No Elephants]

40. Equality for ALL people. Is that really do incredibly hard?