谁会想到？

这件事会发生在许多人眼中先进、文明而有绅士风度的——英国。

(图via网络)

这两天，英国各大媒体纷纷报道了这样一件事，令许多人震惊不已……

——烫乳。

(图via Getty)

所谓“烫乳(breast ironing)"，就是在女孩年龄尚小、胸部刚开始发育时，用烧得滚烫的石头甚至铁棒来烫女孩的胸部，硬生生将乳房烫平。

极其残忍。

(图via网络)

据估计，“烫乳”遍布世界，尤其是西非地区。被这种陋习伤害的女孩多达380万……

According to UN estimates, up to 3.8 million girls worldwide are affected. Breast ironing is particularly widespread in the West African nations of Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau, Chad, Togo and Benin.

据联合国估计，全世界有380万女孩被“烫乳”所影响。它在西非国家喀麦隆、几内亚比绍、乍得、多哥和贝宁尤为普遍。

“In Cameroon, up to 50 percent of girls as young as ten years old undergo terribly painful breast ironing on a daily basis,” the organisation says.

联合国称：“在喀麦隆，10岁以下的女孩有近50%每天都会经历极为痛苦的烫乳。”

(图by HEBA KHAMIS)

而在英国，一些其他地区（尤其西非）的移民后代，即使从小接受英国的教育，仍然难逃被烫乳的噩运。

据统计，遭到烫乳的女孩，在英国或有1000多人……

Margaret Nyuydzewira, head of the diaspora group the Came Women and Girls Development Organisation (Cawogido), estimated that at least 1,000 women and girls in the UK had been subjected to the intervention.

玛格丽特是移民组织“让妇女与女孩发展”的负责人。她估计，在英国至少有1000名女性已受到了烫乳的影响。

齐娜亚(Kinaya)就是一个来自西非、住在英国的女孩。这不是她的真名。

齐娜亚10岁时，便被母亲强迫着进行了烫乳。母亲给出的理由十分怪异——

She said her mother told her that "if I don't iron them, men will start coming to you, to have sex with you".

齐娜亚说，母亲告诉她：“如果我不烫你的乳房，就会有男人开始来找你，跟你上床。”

It is often the child's mother who will undertake the breast ironing, which usually involves heating a stone or spoon on a flame then pressing, massaging or flattening the breast. This can go on for months.

烫乳一事通常由女孩们的母亲来做。她们把石头或勺子放在火上加热，之后用这些器具挤压、按摩或烫平乳房。烫乳的过程可能会持续数月。

……这是什么理由？

就因为怕“男人可能会来和你上床”这种莫须有的事，就要让年幼的女儿遭受石碾火烫、把身上的重要器官活生生给烫平？？

还有一个在英国的母亲，介绍了她给女儿烫乳的过程：

One woman living in the suburbs of an English city told the Guardian how she went about ironing her daughter’s chest at the first sign of puberty.

一名住在英格兰郊区的妇女告诉《卫报》，她是如何在女儿青春期的第一个迹象出现（指胸部开始发育）时去烫她乳房的。

“I took the stone, I warmed it, and then I started massaging [my daughter’s chest],” she said. “And the stone was a little bit hot. When I started massaging, she said: ‘Mummy, it’s hot!’”

“我拿起石头，把它加热，然后开始按摩（我女儿的胸）。”她说。“石头有点烫。当我开始按摩时，女儿说：‘妈妈，好烫啊！’”

The child developed bruising and the mother was eventually questioned by police, before being released with a caution.

她的女儿被烫出了淤伤。最终，当地警方对她进行询问，给她警告然后释放了她。

▲烧得滚烫的石头，是烫乳常用的“工具”(图via Getty)

就这样，因为一些令人匪夷所思的原因，这些女孩的乳房被烫得严重变形、扁平。

原本圆润饱满、充满魅力的器官，变得伤痕累累、干瘪可怖。

(图via网络)

在BBC的报道中，有个在英国的女孩表示，从小就被烫乳的她，本以为所有的女性都得如此。

但一次体育课后，这个发现了“真相”的女孩，在震惊过后变得愈加孤僻……

One woman told the Victoria Derbyshire programme she only realised breast ironing was not normal when she discovered her body looked different to her classmates during a PE class at her UK school, which led her to become distressed.

一名女子告诉节目组，直到她在英国学校上体育课、发现自己的身材和同学们不一样时，她才意识到烫乳是不正常的。这让她十分沮丧。

Her sister had breast ironed her from age eight, but her teachers failed to notice when she became withdrawn and stopped wanting to take part in PE lessons.

她姐姐从她8岁起就开始给她烫乳。但她的老师也没有注意到，这个女孩变得孤僻起来，也不再想上体育课了。

(图via Daily Express)

这还不是最痛苦的。

等好不容易挨过了敏感纤细的青春期、到了结婚生子的时候，这些被烫过乳房的女孩们开始尝到了另一种折磨：

Like many young girls, Simone was also made to wear an extremely tight strap around her chest to suppress them even more - which caused her difficulty breathing.

和很多年幼的女孩一样，西蒙被迫穿着特别紧身的裹胸，从而让胸部变得更平——可这种裹胸会让人难以呼吸。

A few years later, when she had a baby to the man she was forced to marry, the long-term damage became apparent.

几年后，西蒙被迫嫁给了一个男人，还生了个孩子。这时，烫乳的长期危害就开始明显了起来。

"When it comes to breast feeding, it's so strenuous, like there's a knot inside," she explained. "It seemed like maybe some of the nerves were destroyed."

“喂奶时特别费力，就像是乳房打了结似的。”她说。“感觉像是一些神经已经被毁掉了。”

▲西蒙的背影 (图via BBC)

烫乳，是一种针对女性的“割礼”。而“割礼”陋习还有很多种其他的表现形式，每一种都愚昧而残忍。

很难想象，在现代社会——甚至是身为西方发达国家的英国——也存在如此落后怪诞的陋习，残害着一个又一个年幼的女孩，将她们如花的生命一点点摧毁。

▲烫乳用的石头(图via Joe Penney/Reuters)

据悉，英国一些公益组织已在呼吁学校和社会对“烫乳”进行干预。

希望更多的人能知道：用烫平乳房甚至割掉一部分性器官的方法来防止女孩被“骚扰”，是多么荒谬而愚蠢的逻辑。

希望这些对于女童的折磨与残害，能够在这个地球上消失。

(图via The Nubian Times)

（完）

文章来源：环球时报英文版/lanlan

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