Young girls force-fed for marriage in Mauritania | Unreported World

this is eleven-year-old Monet she's about to be force-fed to make her fat her friend Hindu is joining her on a nine thousand calorie a day diet they're growing up in a desperately poor country that's going through a devastating drought but their moms believe fatter girls look wealthier and more beautiful crucial when trying to attract a husband to join one eye on Hindu we're driving through Mauritania into the Sahara Desert I'm soon put to work hope I do a useful job they're preparing a special tent to force-feed the girls during the rainy season which will last two months food is more plentiful than but families will go without to help their fattening process I would make a useless nomad these nomads survived by keeping camels and goats a married daughter means one less mouth to feed one eye is only 11 but a quarter of girls in poor communities married before they're 15 the kind of man although they do this mr. y-you don't think you're pretty now when I an Han do agree to let me weigh them take your shoes off to find out how healthy they are happy in my 16.2 for her age that's very normal Indian stand straight 53 forehand she's also a healthy weight so both girls are healthy weights for their age and their height by the end of the feeding season their parents Hotel Putin over Stern over seven killers Mona's mom Tahir will be in charge of the feeding what are your biggest wishes and dreams for your daughter RZ o sham mother with Holly she had a talk how would you feel if she never succeeds to get fat well then her tummy that held Helen have you sorry everything is ready for the feeding to start the next morning [Music] day one and Takia is preparing the first meal of the day she's been a Bella ha a force field for years but until now she's never force-fed her own daughter around the quarter of mauritania girls are force-fed but in rural areas it can be as high as three quarters how long do they have to consume all of this is it all for today and that wouldn't hurt okay then I perceive the world bossy you're a bull they know whether one day somebody's dick what if you push her so hard that she ends up getting hurt what if what you want for her isn't good for her the long-term health risks for the girls include diabetes heart disease and kidney failure Takia makes Monet and hen do each drink and liter of sweetened camel's milk that's followed by porridge and then Christmas it takes the girls two hours to force down all the food [Music] this is just breakfast but each girl has already eaten about 3000 calories equivalent to 10 cheeseburgers extra white makes girls look older as if they've reached puberty putting more pressure on Monet to marry young you want to get married no why not but your mom says that girls here should get married when they're 12 13 years old while lunch is cooking the women introduced me to fashion mauritania style I've brought some magazines to find out what they think of other countries ideas of beauty so in here they put pictures of women that everybody wants to look like and dress like what do you think about her body mm-hmm do you think that where I come from women starve themselves and go on diets and make themselves throw up to lose weight no geek Kim Kardashian she's meant to be she's very beautiful and she's very care but she's actually big so you like to in Kardashian Kim Kardashian is an exception so how about this woman right now she's considered one of the most beautiful woman on the planet right now the women here insist a man think fat is beautiful I wonder if that's true Abu battery is one of the group's leaders partying about even FC and then the mahogany lemaître fish Randy Newman open airlock vs ramany vs ramany a la Hache it neener neener socio is she a muna contra la rochelle eternity could Marilla what personal question though am I am I am i fat or am i skinny like what do I have to do to look better than her yourself inside your condition and I was taught about the word in her business videos of our generation and a very condensed without format - were you Monday yesterday it's lunchtime Mona and her friend Hindu are made to force down another 4,000 calories each cow has now eaten the equivalent of more than 20 cheeseburgers Henry's mom Fatima to uses her stick to make sure that girls keep going how do you convince her to carry on vastly critical Zionists have it rockball honey do you not feel bad when you do this Annamarie monoface monoface is energy Oh to interfere dr. Shimada tell her about negative things [Music] when a an hindus evening meal brings today's calorie count to a massive nine thousand almost twice what a heavyweight boxer and nearly five times the World Health Organization's recommendation for girls their age by the end of the feeding season they'll be eating sixteen thousand calories a day suddenly the food has to be cleared away there's a massive sunstroke coming this way and we have to take cover we have we've had to pack everything up [Music] [Music] early the next morning I discover a group of younger girls being force-fed in a camp nearby sure smack zeynep ooh and aha Fatima to praha and Zara's are all under 10 years old the feeder cider is expanding their stomachs with milk and couscous to permanently increase their appetites is this for each each girl or do they share this that our toughness of dating so do Shara they were shot when the girls feel unwell the feeder tells them to make themselves sick so they can keep eating watching the girls eat I can see why this is often referred to as gavage the term used for force-feeding geese to make foie gras [Music] you care what's wrong Fred who show me where it hurts [Music] have you been sick surely a good loss will you go are you still gonna make her to kibosh if I do is this normal is she gonna be okay the Beluga enough unmarriable yeah please tell Sharon imagine what a bummer this looks like child abuse but no law specifically forbids it Fatima to stat Abdullah he tells me force feeding is good for her hand in hand engineer in the quiescent Hydra near horribly mutilated lockup keep the prepare her it's not the accident the Machine being willing putting pressure on your body to look a certain way especially for us women is nothing new I've done it my girlfriend's have done it but what makes this quite different and a bit shocking is that these are little girls and this pain and torture which could potentially have quite serious health issues is being put on these girls by their parents I rejoined takia who is preparing more food for her daughter Mona and her friend Hindu but Tahir has a question for me the feeder just asked if we have any medication that could help her daughter gain more weight she says these empty bottles contain drugs that help girls get baptized so she's even used them herself to put on extra weight to keep attractive where did you hear about this who told you about this [Music] Ricky's words were funny the drugs come from the capital whack shot I had there I want to find out more about this dangerous trade I go straight to one of the largest hospitals in the city this the doctors won't talk on camera but tell me that drugs are easy to buy I found a couple of girls who are willing to help me find the drugs and dressing me up so I look like a local how can we go undercover they explained the drugs aren't only bought by force feeders many of their friends buy them to put on weight and look glamorous they guide me to a major market and I filmed them with a hidden camera it's illegal for anyone but licensed pharmacists to sell medication but I can see at least 10 stalls selling medicines we approach the first of them they buy a steroid dexamethasone which affects the body's metabolism and an antihistamine cyproheptadine which has the side effect of increasing weight with the drugs left foot a woman can pile on weight very quickly risking problems like a heart attack or kidney failure that was too easy I was told it was easy but this was just I mean they weren't even trying to hide it they are openly displaying these drugs on top of all these other day-to-day things that they're selling like necklaces and I don't know lipsticks it was that easy [Music] the next morning I meet the iveco family they know how dangerous these drugs are Miriam says her daughter aza - just Eric meant for animals her skin began to turn black could you know oh this the world I know that she really didn't with onions in intrud and the next day is a died [Music] despite what's happened a minute who tells me she now takes the same drug that killed her sister how do you think your mom would feel especially after what happened to your sister if she did find out that you're taking these pills to kid there wasn't a moon hunter funny thing was a hundred meters I mean she meant to walk up said oh my god AHA tantum she really wasn't alone there are no figures on how many women are using these drugs to put our weight or how many are dying but everyone I spoke to said the use of these drugs is widespread this is a society where a woman's biggest power is to be beautiful and to be beautiful you have to be fat that's it and that really sets the priority for what these women do and the lengths they're willing to go to achieve that ideal in the desert Monet and hen duo are still in the feeding tent is their fourth day being force-fed they tell me they're feeling nauseous and tired when you're a mummy and your daughter says mommy I don't want to do garage I don't want to be fat what would you tell her and if she says I don't think that is pretty [Music] the best way for me to really understand gavage and what it feels like and get a more realistic idea about it we're gonna have to try it myself it's the same huge breakfast as before which in calories carbs and sugar it takes us three hours to force down all the food it's not even lunchtime and with each consumed a thousand calories more than I normally eat in a day I really need to go masala I'm so full and I've been instructed to go out for a little walk to help the food settle before lunch it really is like a marathon it's really filling and dry and you have to keep drinking it putting it out with water and it's just like not very nice it's like a really weird texture and my tummy tell me it really hurts and it's quick look at that it's quite swollen after barely half an hour it's time for a calorie rich lunch greasy white rice vegetables nuts and chicken I can't take it anymore and have to stop but Monet is forced to continue my tummy hurts I feel really bloated I feel sleepy I can't really think I'm constantly thirsty but I just can't it's it's horrible it's like everything I eat it just stays right here just builds up its I can't believe girls as young as five six years old have to consume a similar amount day in day out Monet and I both feel pressure to look a certain way but I at least have the freedom to choose only when more women in mauritania have the chance of an independent life will they also have that freedom thanks for watching click the logo to subscribe for more award-winning documentaries from the unreported world team we upload videos every Sunday keeping you up to date with content from all over the world [Music]

Channel: Unreported World

Views: 7,167,223

Keywords: Unreported world, unreported world documentary, Mauritania, Africa, West Africa, beauty, Beautiful, Feeding, Food, fat, diets, beauty standards, beauty norms, girls, women, children, diet, feeding camps, marriage, calories, force fed, force feeding, saharzand, Sahar Zand

Id: ZM2q7XFOOgg

Length: 22min 38sec (1358 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 09 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/filibear14]

I feel sick just watching them eat that amount

[u/paracog]

Dang, I'd rather be a child soldier...oh, wait, no.

[u/_enil_]

This is horrible, these girls are so young .

[u/adriennemonster]

It wouldn't seem that bad if they were at least eating food that looked good. But I guess that's why being fat is a special thing here, where you can't just pound cheeseburgers and shakes from McDonalds.

[u/[deleted]]

r/stuffers would love this.