Worldcrunch - Real news. True sources. Seriously international. (original) (raw)

CAIRO — "As I watched my breasts develop, I was anxious and confused; I was a child who didn’t understand anything about my body. Suddenly, my mother bought me a sports bra. And when I told my friend, she asked if I had started producing milk," Samar Sulaiman, now 30, remembers about entering puberty, a life stage during which girls in Egypt often lack a safe source of information about the changes that are happening to them, leaving the space wide open to myths.

✉️ To receive our weekly Women Worldwide newsletter, Click here.

Myths about the female body are rife in conservative societies such as Egypt's. These are not only evident in the way women dress, move, speak and interact, but also have repercussions on how women handle their natural growth and development, as well as their sexuality.

All information about sexual relations with men are kept secret — if they are revealed at all — from women until just before their marriage.

Sulaiman, who was 11 at the time, hated the appearance of her breasts. She wore a bra all the time — even in the shower — until her mother told her that doing so would make her breasts grow bigger. Following her mother's mythical advice, Sulaiman stopped wearing a bra all the time. She hoped that this would keep her body from changing in ways she did not understand or accept.

"No one told me that it was normal; that breasts are a sign of beauty. I didn't have any correct information. It was just myths that my mother told me because she wanted me to act in a certain way," says Sulaiman, who did not manage to reconcile with her breasts until she got married, gave birth and breastfed her child; only then was she able to see her body in a different way.