Consequences of 'Foot Binding' among Women in China

               Foot binding  was a custom practiced on young girls and women for approximately one thousand years in China, beginning in the 10th century and ending in the first half of 20th century.
Foot-binding resulted in lifelong disabilities for most of its practitioners. As the practice waned in the early 20th century, "some girls' feet were released after initial binding, leaving less severe deformities," according to a study conducted by the University of California, San Francisco. However, some effects of foot-binding were permanent, especially if a girl's arches or toes had been broken or other drastic measures taken in order to achieve the desired smallness. In the 1990s and early 2000s, some elderly (born until mid-1940s) Chinese women still suffered from disabilities related to bound feet.


Legend has it that the origins of footbinding go back as far as the Shang dynasty (1700-1027 B.C.). The Shang Empress had a clubfoot, so she demanded that footbinding be made compulsory in the court.
But historical records from the Song dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) date footbinding as beginning during the reign of Li Yu, who ruled over one region of China between 961-975. It is said his heart was captured by a concubine, Yao Niang, a talented dancer who bound her feet to suggest the shape of a new moon and performed a "lotus dance."

"The Practice of Breast Ironing" -Female Genital Mutilation

         Key facts

• Female genital mutilation (FGM) includes procedures that intentionally alter or cause injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
• The procedure has no health benefits for girls and women.
• Procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, infertility as well as complications in childbirth increased risk of newborn deaths.
• About 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of FGM.
• FGM is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15.
• In Africa an estimated 101 million girls 10 years old and above have undergone FGM.
• FGM is a violation of the human rights of girls and women.

Breast ironing is the practice of using various objects to massage or press on developing girls’ breasts to discourage growth. It is traditional in several areas of Africa, but notably in Cameroon, affecting 1 in 4 girls, according to a study by the development group Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).

       Usually mothers or elders carry on this tradition meant to delay the appearance of sexual maturity and thus, delay sexual predation. The GTZ reports that the devastating psychological and physical health effects include “damaged tissue, open wounds, abscesses, infections, an elevated cancer risk,…difficulties with breastfeeding and trauma.”

Tools used in "Breast Ironing"