Samantha+G.

 Being a young girl anywhere isn’t easy. In the United States girls all over deal with emotional, physical, and social issues every single day. Now imagine being a teenage girl in a third world country. You would probably be picturing what girls in Mauritania, Africa live their whole lives as.

**__Where It Is__**


Mauritania is a small country about the size of Arizona in Western Africa. Men dictate the way women are brought up, because of their status in society. They choose who the women marry, where they are educated, and even their diets. While this all may sound horrible to us, the people in Mauritania are just beginning to see the consequences of their culture’s ideals.

=__Cultural Differences__=

The definition of beauty in Mauritania is completely different from anything any American has heard of before. Obesity is gorgeous in their culture, even seen as something to strive for. On women, it is seen as a sign of a healthy family and a rich husband that can afford to spoil her (Harter). However, the problem is that women are not born this way, as it is not natural to be extremely overweight. Most of the children in Mauritania are either or average weight for their age or even underweight. This is where society does its damage, in practicing a tradition known as //leblouh// (Haworth). Mothers and fathers force their daughters as young as twelve to go into places called eating camps. An eating camp is a camp where young girls are sent to be force-fed the equivalent of sixteen thousand calories a day. If they refuse, they are beaten and tortured by the leaders of the camp.

Why is this happening so young? Besides the practice of force-feeding, Mauritania is known for its child marriages. Most girls are married before they turn fifteen to much older men (Haworth). So, to make their daughters more attractive to their to-be husbands, parents and camps start their work early on.

=__Emotional & Physical Effects__=

This is neither healthy emotionally or physically for a teenager. By doing this, girls are being taught that their worth as a person lies in how appealing they are to a man. Since the idea of beauty is ever-changing and unique from person to person, it is impossible to work towards being beautiful like one can work to be educated (Sheddon 56). In fact, because girls are sent to the camps around their marrying age, many do not continue school after their wedding. This leads to even more problems because women never learn that they have other choices and opportunities for their lives, so they feel as though they have to remain a certain way in order to conform to society. While men do hold a higher position in society, it is not illegal or totally unheard of for a woman to be both educated and single in her twenties. However, the fear remains that they will be shunned for being disobedient to tradition. The practice of force-feeding was briefly outlawed, but was brought back because the men in government disliked the newfound freedom women were experiencing (Haworth). After being re-introduced to Mauritania, the practice spread faster than ever throughout both rural and urban areas.

 Physically, it’s the same story. Diabetes is one of the most rapidly appearing health problems faced by women in Mauritania. This, fortunately, can be managed so the women that develop it are able to live normal lives without suffering. A more disturbing health issue is the amount of deaths occurring simply from bodies collapsing under their own weight, suffocating the person (Harter). If the woman is at this point, rarely can anything be done to help, causing most to die.

=__What We Can Do__=

While there is no way to stop this from happening alone, there are several ways to jump-start a change. Educating people about this is just the beginning to saving the lives of women that would eventually go through this. More and more people are sending information to the citizens on obesity and it’s negative effects, causing many people- both men and women- to change their opinions about what has gone on in their culture for countless years. The more people know, the more they can make decisions to better themselves. The more we know, the more we can guide them along.