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POLITICAL

How social groups of people make decisions with government affairs involving power and authority and how it affects breast ironing

Polygyny Interfering With Options

Cameroon government endorses polygyny as it has strong traditional roots in its culture. Polygyny is the practice of polygamy, or having more than one wife to just one husband. The government supports this as they feel that polygyny protects women and children by creating formal unions that are supported by the husband with equal quantities of wealth distribution (Cameroon Mass Polygamous Wedding, 2007). This somewhat justifies the power imbalance in marriage between a man and woman. A woman cannot leave a man under a customary law unless her bridewealth (or food and money given to a wife from the groom’s family) is repaid to the in-laws. However, since many marry for financial support, many women find themselves hitched without much assistance to leave (Tapscott, 2012).

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A typical UN assembly (United Nations General Assembly, 2017).

 

If a girl does have pregnancy before marriage, the man is somewhat obliged to marry her. By accordance to section 297 of the Cameroon Penal Code which refers to how rape perpetrators should be sentenced: “the law allows that there be no offence considered where marriage is freely consented between the rapist and the victim where the victim is over puberty at the time of commission of the offence.” (Akenji, 2009). But men are rarely held accountable for their behavior, due to ever changing norms and complacent authorities (Tapscott, 2012). About only one in 20 accused male rapists are ever convicted of the crime (Ndonko & Taku). Also, by law abortion is illegal and punishable for up to five years in prison and a fine of $4,200 for the abortionist and a year in prison for the female. This is due to the basis of following religious tradition and abstinence.

Lacking Legal Accountability

“The doctor shall obtain the opinion of two experts each chosen respectively from legal experts and members of the National Council of Medical Practitioners. The latter shall testify in writing that the life of the mother can only be safeguarded by means of the intervention. The protocol of consultation shall be made in 3 copies one of which shall be handed to the patient and the other two to the consultant physician and legal expert. Besides, a protocol of the decision taken shall be sent by registered mail to the chairperson of the National Council of Medical Practitioners.”

 

However, the availability to these legal practices are very slim to women (Schuster, 2010).

Cameroon has ratified the following to protect human rights, especially for women and children:

·       1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights

·       1986: WHO Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion

·       1988: United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic , Social and Cultural Rights, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights

 

However, Cameroon has failed to pass national legislation to hold local law and practices to the same standard as the international level (Hopkins, 1999). A petition has been made towards Cameroon parliament to propose a ten year prison sentence for those who are caught performing breast ironing, but it has still not been criminalized. The United States and the United Nations have placed breast ironing on the list of a violation of children’s and women’s rights (Tapscott, 2012).

 

Poor Education On Sexual Topics

The topic of sex and its education is not talked about often and gets looked at as an uncomfortable conversation. Parents remove themselves from “the talk” as they hand the issue over to the public school system. Discussion on HIV/AIDs, sex education, and STIs are included in the National Syllabus for Primary Schools, however the quality is lacking as some teachers are shy to be dwelling in the parent's’ responsibility (Cameroon's National Syllabus for English Speaking Primary Schools, 2000). Some women unfortunately learn from a first time experience about what sex is. Condom use is even considered unpopular because it symbolizes imbalanced power dynamics between males and females that a women will passively fall to a man’s request. Some youth view contraceptive use as a form of mistrust for one another (Abbasi, 2009).

Cameroon's education system may benefit from mirroring a model implemented in schools in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom's legal authorities have made teachers somewhat mandatory reporters for safeguarding children from breast ironing if the staff suspects it (Safeguarding In Schools, 2017). This could be implemented by the Cameroonian government to save young girls from experiencing breast ironing. This act would serve as an example to all school children that breast ironing is harmful and that the authorities are serious about ending its practice to protect women.

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