The Federal Government has vowed to stop what it called”harmful practice of breast ironing” in the country.
The Minister of Women Affairs, Barr Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, who condemned the practice, reiterated her efforts to scale up plans to eradicate the barbaric act.
Kennedy-Ohanenye said this during an advocacy and sensitisation visit to the Garki Chiefdom, Abuja Municipal Council along with some top management staff of the Ministry.
Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister, Ohaeri Joseph, made this known in a statement.
According to him, the Minister said the ancient traditional practice, which falls among gender-based violence against the female gender, solicited the partnership of the District Heads and other local authorities towards eradicating the practice which negates the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu aimed at improving the welfare of women and the girl child.
She said, “The purpose of her visit was to further sensitise the community on the consequences of breast ironing, which is being practised on some young girls as traditional rites meant to prevent early male attraction to them.
“These practices are totally unacceptable and form part of condemnable and harmful practices against the female gender which must be stamped out.
“This age-long tradition could lead to cancer on the affected girls as it is capable of leading to nipple challenges in their future life as well as the production of sour breast milk for their infants, which is dangerous to the growth and development of new born babies.”
Ohanenye observed that empirical studies have shown that such traditional practices are behind time and that it behoves the chiefdom, religious leaders as well as the government to ensure that such rites become a thing of the past.
She therefore urged the Council to join hands with government by taking the campaign against the practice to the people at the grassroots, even as her Ministry works out modalities to integrate the communities into its sustainable empowerment programmes that will improve their livelihood, which according to her, will take off in the month of January 2024.
