Mauritania Women Fighting Obesity Tradition

In Mauritania, the act of "Leblouh," or forced fattening, has been a widely practiced tradition. The tradition involves force feeding young girls large quantities of food and bowls of milk to gain a massive amount of weight. Some of these girls are also forced to consume food with chemicals that are used to fatten livestock so they can gain weight at greater amounts and quicker. In the Mauritanian culture, when women are obese, they are seen as more beautiful and are able to be married off faster than the women who are stick thin. Also within the culture, when a girl is thin, it brings shame upon her family and other people then view her family as poor because they lack the funds to feed her. If a young girl refuses to eat, she is often punished by family members, either by being beaten or has her toes crushed. Mauritania's women are now currently fighting this tradition because it is heavily dangerous to these young girl's health. By being obese, it can cause diabetes, high blood pressure, hypertension, and heart disease. These women are not force feeding their daughters because they do not want them to go through the many health problems other girls are going through. At this time, these fighting women are not trying to ban leblouh, but rather teaching individuals the consequences that this tradition has on females. Hopefully, Mauritania will realize these health hazards and ban this tradition.