Wife fattening !

Most of us connect hunger, poverty, disease and death to the country Africa.... but there is something more to it. Can you believe if I tell you that, in this under nourished country there is a strange tradition of force feeding children.

Mauritania is one of the African countries where obesity is so revered among Mauritania's white Moor Arab population that the young girls are sometimes force-fed to obtain a weight the government has described as "life-threatening".

A generation ago, over a third of women in the country were force-fed as children. Now only around one in 10 girls are treated this way. The treatment has its roots in fat being seen as a sign of wealth - if a girl was thin she was considered poor, and would not be respected.

But in rural Mauritania you still see the rotund women that the country is famous for. They walk slowly, dainty hands on the end of dimpled arms, pinching multicoloured swathes of fabric together to keep the biting sand from their faces.

 

They make them eat and eat and eat. And then drink lots and lots of water. They do this three times a day - in the morning, afternoon and in the evening."

Eventually the girls could end up weighing between 60 to 100 kilograms with lots of layers of fat.

Obesity is seen as a sign a husband cares for his wife. They are proud and show off their good size to make men dribble.Traditionally a fat wife was a symbol of wealth. Now they've got another vision, another criteria for beauty.

They believe fat woman can get married easily and serve the man well. 

Hmm .... what a strange twist in woman's thought.