Chad – praag.org

Chad outlaws homosexuality

Chad looks set to become the 37th country in Africa to outlaw homosexuality after government ministers voted to make same-sex relations a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

The decision, yet to be ratified by the country’s president, was condemned by human rights groups as another setback in the struggle for gay rights on the continent. Chad’s penal code is more than half a century old and does not explicitly mention homosexuality.

But section 361 of a draft new code states the punishment for anyone who has sexual intercourse with someone of the same sex is 15 to 20 years in jail and a fine of 50,000-500,000 Central African francs (£60-£600), according to a document seen by Agence France-Presse.

The cabinet claims that the measure is intended to “protect the family and to comply with Chadian society”. It will go before MPs and President Idriss Déby to be rubber-stamped.

The new penal code also abolishes the death penalty, more than a decade after the last execution of prisoners, a move welcomed by activists.

The reform of the penal code had been in preparation for 10 years but the question of homosexuality, while considered immoral, had never been a public issue in Chad.

The development is a reaction against colonial mores in Africa. Some observers believe it has been a response to the increased visibility and assertiveness of gay lifestyles and politics in Africa.

Although US evangelical Christians have been blamed for instigating anti-gay legislation in Uganda, same-sex relations are illegal in 36 of the continent’s 54 countries, according to Amnesty International, and punishable by death in many.

Last month the Gambia passed a bill imposing life imprisonment for “aggravated homosexuality” relating to repeat offenders and people living with HIV/Aids. The Gambia’s president, Yahya Jammeh, has previously told gay men and lesbians to leave the country or risk beheading.

Uganda recently imposed penalties for the “promotion of homosexuality”, including life sentences for various same sex acts. The law was struck down by judges on a technicality but is expected to be reintroduced by MPs.

In January, the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, signed into law a bill criminalising same-sex “amorous relationships” and membership of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights groups.

Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, regularly attacks gay people in speeches and recently said he resented western aid because it depended on conditions such as accepting homosexuality.

Cameroon’s mothers ‘iron’ daughters’ breasts to delay puberty

Scene in Cameroon with Mount Cameroon in the background

by Anne Mireille Nzouankeu and Kristin Palitza

It happened a long time ago, two full decades, but Raissa Nana’s painful memories have remained fresh.

“My mother began to flatten my chest when I was 11. Every evening, she heated a stone in boiling water and pressed it on my breasts,” the 31-year-old remembered, her anger still written all over her face.

Dressed in a plain T-shirt that betrayed her flat chest, Nana recalled the physical abuse and humiliation she endured throughout puberty: “I cried out in pain, while my aunts were holding me down.”

By “ironing” her bust for years, the mother damaged Nana’s breast tissue irreparably.

The practice of “breast ironing,” in which mothers try to flatten their daughters’ developing breasts with heavy, heated objects is common in Cameroon as well as in many other West African countries, including Nigeria, Togo, Guinea, Chad and Ivory Coast.

Some women use stones or pestles to prevent breast growth, while others pound the tissue with heated plantain peels.

In nations where teenage pregnancy and rape are rife, trying to forcibly eliminate signs of puberty to protect their daughters seems worth the pain to many mothers.

A quarter of girls fall pregnant under the age of 15 in Cameroon, according to 2011 government statistics, while an estimated four per cent of women and girls are being raped.

“Mothers don’t want their daughters to get involved in early sexual activity, become pregnant and drop out of school,” explained Dr. Flavien Ndonko, technical adviser and anthropologist of aid organization German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Cameroon.

In a society, where discussing sexuality with children is a taboo for cultural and religious reasons, mothers resort to methods that have serious implications on their daughters’ health and psyche, according to Ndonko.

“They don’t realize how traumatizing breast ironing is,” he said. “It’s a very, very painful practice.”

But behavioural patterns are hard to change and myths difficult to set straight.

Even today, Nana’s mother, 52-year-old Emilienne, continues to believe the “benefits” of breast ironing outweigh the physical and emotional suffering it causes.

“I myself underwent breasts ironing. I did it to my daughter because I wanted the best for her,” she told dpa.

In Cameroon, 12 per cent of women have had their breasts ironed, according to a new study, for which GIZ surveyed about 6,000 girls and women between the ages of 10 and 82.

Contrary to general assumptions, breast ironing is not an old tradition. “It’s a social issue that is much more prevalent in urban than in rural areas. It originates from modern problems around sexuality,” explained Ndonko.

The psychological trauma the practice induces is immense.

“Girls get to understand that it’s not normal to have breasts, which has a long-term impact on their body image and sexual life,” said Ndonko.

“More than half of the women we interviewed associate breasts with shame,” he added.

Although Cameroon’s ministry for family and women’s empowerment classified breast ironing as a “violation of women’s rights” in 2011, the government has not legislated against the practice.

Eighty per cent of the women surveyed by GIZ said their breasts were permanently deformed by breast ironing. Nine per cent said they had difficulty breastfeeding their babies.

“We have seen girls developing cysts, infections, deformation and dissymmetry of the breast and psychological illness,” explained Sarah Ako, spokesperson of women’s rights group National Network of Aunties, which works closely with GIZ in capital Yaounde.

More than 10,000 women across Cameroon have joined the network to fight for the rights of younger generations. They run educational campaigns in schools, churches and on national radio to mobilize against breast ironing.

The good news is that the campaign has shown success. The 12 per cent of women suffering today from breast ironing represents a halving of the number in 2006, when an initial GIZ survey found that one in four women were affected by the practice.

“That’s a positive trend. It’s encouraging, but we’ll only be happy when we have zero cases,” said Ndonko.

Nana is one of the women who want to help break the cycle. As part of the Aunties network, she consults young women on issues relating to their sexuality.

Nana says she certainly won’t flatten the breasts of her own daughter, who just turned 14: “I don’t think it’s a solution to prevent premature sexuality.” – dpa

Obama okays military aid to countries with child soldiers

Amid the hoopla of the government shutdown, the White House quietly passed a bill Monday that overrides a law banning military aid to countries that use child soldiers.

The Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 prohibits the U.S. government from providing military assistance to countries that directly use, or support the use of, child soldiers. Built into the law is an option allowing the U.S. president to override the ban if he/she deems it necessary.

On Monday, President Obama issued complete waivers to Yemen, Chad, and South Sudan, opening up those countries to U.S. military aid despite their known use of child soldiers, declaring in a written memorandum it is “in the national interest of the United States” to override the ban.

Obama also granted partial waivers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia to allow “International Military Education and Training” and “nonlethal” defense for both countries and “provision of assistance under the Peacekeeping Operations authority for logistical support and troop stipends” in Somalia. According to Think Progress writer Hayes Brown, these waivers open the door for military aid for ongoing “peacekeeping” operations in both these countries.

“Obama is becoming an expert at waiving human rights laws,” writes Ken Hanly in Digital Journal. “He waived part of a law last month that banned the US from supplying lethal aid to terrorist groups so he could send aid to Syrian rebels. In the case of Egypt, Obama has refused to call the coup by the armed forces a coup and by doing so does not run afoul of a law that would ban aid to a country where there had been a military coup.”

“Human rights are to be promoted but only insofar as they do not conflict with US national interest as understood by the president,” he added.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government has come under criticism for filling its own military ranks with hundreds of thousands of teenagers, including 17-year-olds who can enlist with parental consent. – wakeupfromyourslumber.com