There are things that happen in horror films that we can dismiss as fiction but still squirm at how messed up they are to imagine. The haunted houses, the strange rituals, the people making decisions that leave you screaming at your screen. We switch off the television, turn on the lights and get on with our lives.
But what happens when the horror is real? When the body horror is a girl having her developing breasts repeatedly pressed with heated objects? When the mandatory family tradition involves forcing a widow to drink water used to wash her husband’s corpse? Or when a girl is married off, young and naive, to an older man, without being remotely prepared—physically or mentally—for marriage.
Unfortunately, these are not the inventions of an overactive Hollywood screenwriter. Across different parts of the world, harmful practices rooted in gender inequality, social expectations, superstition and the control of women’s bodies continue to affect millions of women and girls.
Some are increasingly being challenged through legislation, education and community-led campaigns. Others remain poorly documented, quietly enforced or inadequately punished, even where laws prohibit them.
Let’s look at 10 real-life practices that sound like they belong in a horror film. Plot twist: these are real women’s lives.
1. Breast ironing
Imagine being a teenage girl whose body is changing, only to have someone repeatedly press, pound or massage your developing breasts with heated stones or hammer-like tools, in an attempt to stop them from growing. One of the reasons? One stated aim is to make adolescent girls less attractive and shield them from harassment, rape, abduction and early forced marriage. The practice causes immediate pain and damages the soft tissues of the breasts. In the long term, it can lead to abscesses, cysts and severe psychological trauma, and can even prevent future breastfeeding.
The especially troubling part is that the practice may be carried out by mothers or other female relatives who believe they are protecting girls from sexual harassment and violence. It is horrible what girls have to go through so these societies can comfortably fail to address men’s deviant sexual behaviour.
Where does it happen?
According to published research, breast ironing is prevalent in Cameroon. Reports have documented or identified concerns about the practice in countries including Nigeria, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo. However, researchers caution that reliable prevalence data remain limited, making it difficult to establish its current scale across countries.
Is it being stopped?
While breast ironing has received attention from public health researchers, women’s rights advocates and organisations working to end gender-based violence, it is largely kept secret within households, making the enforcement against it difficult.
Cameroon does not have a national law against breast ironing. In Nigeria, breast ironing can be prosecuted under section 20 of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (VAPP Act). Other jurisdictions have taken legal or policy measures against it, but there is no comprehensive global monitoring system, and the evidence on enforcement and prevalence remains limited. Awareness, confidential support for affected girls and education for families are essential to prevention.
The fact that some girls are subjected to the practice by people who love them makes it no less harmful. It makes understanding the beliefs behind it even more important.
2. Female genital mutilation
Female genital mutilation (FGM) involves partially or completely removing external female genitalia or otherwise injuring female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The practice is often performed on girls during childhood, sometimes in infancy. It can cause severe bleeding, infections, menstrual difficulties, complications during childbirth and psychological trauma. It has no health benefits.
The reasons given for FGM vary. In some communities, it is associated with ideas about purity, marriageability, social acceptance or controlling female sexuality. Families may fear that a daughter who has not undergone the procedure will be promiscuous, be rejected by potential husbands or be excluded from her community.
Where does it happen?
According to the World Health Organization, more than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM. FGM is documented in several African countries, including Somalia, Guinea, Egypt, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Sudan. Prevalence differs significantly between countries and communities. It has also been documented in parts of Asia and in diaspora communities across Europe, North America and Australia.
Is it being stopped?
There has been progress worldwide, including legislation, public education and community awareness programmes. In Nigeria, Section 6 of the VAPP Act 2015 prohibits FGM. Kano is the only state that has not enacted the Act as state law.
Nevertheless, the WHO warns that progress is too slow to meet the global target of eliminating FGM by 2030. An estimated four million girls undergo the practice each year.
3. Child, Early and Forced Marriage
A wedding dress, a ceremony, a new home and a husband might sound like the ingredients of a romantic film. But when the bride is a child, the story quickly turns horrifying.
More than 640 million girls and women alive today were married before their 18th birthday. Stripped of their childhood and education, these girls may be forced into domestic servitude and marital sex without consent, frequently bearing children while their own bodies are not yet physically mature. According to the WHO, older adolescent girls are disproportionately affected by intimate partner violence, while pregnancy complications and unsafe abortions are among the leading causes of death among girls aged 15–19.
In many cases, the decisions leading to these marriages are made by adults. Poverty, insecurity, gender discrimination and social pressure can all contribute. Some families see marriage as a source of financial relief or a way to protect a child’s sexual purity, ignoring the fact that these marriages can place girls in dangerous situations.
Where does it happen?
Child marriage occurs across the world, but it is particularly prevalent in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Countries such as Niger, Chad and the Central African Republic have historically recorded high prevalence, while India accounts for a substantial share of the world’s child brides because of its population size.
Nigeria also faces a significant child-marriage challenge, particularly in the north.
Is it being stopped?
Yes, but not quickly enough. UNICEF estimates that approximately 650 million girls and women alive today were married before their eighteenth birthday. The proportion of young women married in childhood has declined globally over recent decades, with particularly notable progress in South Asia. Legal minimum ages, enforcement, access to education and economic opportunities for girls are important parts of the response. A wedding is supposed to mark a new chapter. For a child who has not been given a meaningful choice, it can mark the end of the childhood she should have been allowed to enjoy.
4. Virginity testing
In some communities, a girl’s or woman’s perceived worth is tied to whether she has had sex before marriage. One way this expectation is enforced is through so-called virginity testing, in which someone examines a female’s genitals in an attempt to determine whether she has had sexual intercourse. The examination may involve inspecting the hymen or inserting fingers into the vagina. It is often performed by doctors, police officers or community leaders on women and girls to assess their virtue, honour or social value. In some regions, health professionals reportedly perform virginity tests on rape survivors, supposedly to establish whether rape occurred. The procedure can be painful, humiliating and traumatic, particularly when performed under pressure or without meaningful consent.
Here is the disturbing part: there is no scientific test that can establish whether a girl or woman has had vaginal intercourse. The appearance of the hymen is not reliable evidence of sexual activity, and bleeding during first intercourse is not guaranteed.
In other words, the procedure cannot establish what it claims to establish, yet its supposed findings can have devastating consequences for the person examined.
Where does it happen?
The practice has been documented in at least 20 countries globally, most commonly in parts of Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Africa.
Is it being stopped?
In 2018, the World Health Organization, UN Human Rights and UN Women called for the elimination of virginity testing. Some governments have introduced bans, including the United Kingdom, where the Health and Care Act 2022 criminalised virginity testing and hymenoplasty. However, the practice can persist through family pressure, social expectations and institutions that continue to treat female sexuality as something requiring proof or surveillance. A procedure that cannot scientifically prove what it claims should never be used to determine a girl’s dignity, safety or future.
5. Dowry-Related Violence
In parts of South Asia, marriage can involve the transfer of money, jewellery, goods or other property from the bride’s family to the groom’s family. Although marriage-related gifts are not inherently abusive, dowry demands can become a means of coercion, harassment and violence. Dowry deaths refer to cases in which married women are murdered or driven to suicide following dowry disputes, often after being severely harassed by the groom and his family. In these extreme cases, women are assaulted or killed because their husbands or in-laws believe that the dowry was insufficient or demand additional payments after the wedding.
While the purpose of dowry is to provide stability for a newly married couple, the practice has morphed into pressure on the bride’s family to give enough. This can mean families saving for their daughter’s dowry beginning at her birth, and can even lead parents to wish they had not had a daughter, contributing to the neglect of female infants and sex-selective abortion. Additionally, the amount of dowry expected tends to be lower the younger the daughter is, which can lead to daughters being married off at a younger age.
Where does it happen?
Dowry-related violence is particularly documented in India. A look at the past decade shows that reported dowry deaths in India fell from 7,634 cases in 2015 to 5,737 in 2024. While this decline of nearly 1,900 cases may indicate some improvement, the data still translates into more than 15 dowry-related deaths every day across the country as at 2024.
Is it being stopped?
India’s Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 prohibits giving, taking and demanding dowry, subject to the law’s provisions. Yet the scale of the problem remains alarming, with about 15 dowry-related deaths every day across the country in 2024. These are recorded deaths, not a measure of every case of dowry-related abuse, and do not capture the full extent of coercion and harassment.
6. Honour killings
Imagine being threatened, assaulted or killed by members of your own family because they believe you have damaged the family’s reputation.
This is the reality of so-called honour-based violence. Human Rights Watch describes it best:Honour crimes are acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female relatives perceived to have brought dishonour upon the family. A woman can be targeted for many reasons, including refusing to enter an arranged marriage, being sexually assaulted, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or committing adultery. The mere perception that a woman has brought “dishonour” on her family can be enough to trigger an attack.
The word honour can make the act sound as though it has a legitimate social purpose. It does not. The label reflects the justification used by perpetrators, not a defence for the violence.
Where does it happen?
Honour-based violence has been documented in parts of Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, as well as in communities in Europe. It is not confined to one religion, nationality or culture. Reliable global totals are difficult to establish because cases may be concealed, misclassified or never reported.
Is it being stopped?
Governments and human rights organisations have worked to strengthen criminal laws, protect women at risk and challenge social norms that excuse family violence. Pakistan, for example, amended its criminal law in 2016 to address loopholes that had allowed perpetrators of honour killings to benefit from certain forms of family forgiveness.
However, laws cannot protect women effectively if police ignore threats, families conceal abuse or authorities treat violence as a private family matter. Survivors need safe accommodation, confidential reporting channels, legal assistance and protection before threats become fatal. No family reputation is worth a woman’s life.
7. Witchcraft Accusations
Witches are bad. Wizards are good. Have you ever wondered why that is?
But I digress. In some communities, women—particularly older women and widows—have been accused of causing illness, death, misfortune or other unexplained events through witchcraft. These accusations can lead to public humiliation, expulsion from homes, physical assault, torture and murder. Women who are already socially isolated, economically vulnerable or living with disabilities may face heightened risks. The horror is not simply that someone believes another person possesses supernatural powers. It is that an accusation can become a licence for violence, sometimes with entire communities participating or looking away.
Where does it happen?
Witchcraft-related accusations and violence have been documented in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana and Nigeria, as well as in other parts of the world. The circumstances vary, and women are not the only people targeted. Children and men can also be accused.
Is it being stopped?
Legal protections exist, but their scope and enforcement differ. Nigerian law on witchcraft is controversial. Sections 208–210 of the Criminal Code Act, alongside relevant provisions of the Penal Code, address certain witchcraft-related conduct.
The central challenge is ensuring that allegations do not trigger mob violence, that police investigate assaults and killings, and that vulnerable people can obtain protection. Public education and community engagement are also necessary to challenge beliefs being used to justify abuse.
A widow who has lost her husband should not have to fear losing her home, dignity or life because someone has decided she might be responsible for the tragedy.
8. Harmful widowhood rites
Losing a spouse can be devastating. In some communities, however, a widow’s grief is compounded by rituals that she is expected to endure as proof of mourning, loyalty or innocence. These rites vary widely. Some involve shaving a widow’s hair, scarification, forced isolation or restrictions on movement. Others have included coercing widows to drink water used to wash their deceased husbands’ bodies or subjecting them to sexual rituals. The practices are not universal, and many communities have mourning traditions that do not involve abuse. The concern arises when rituals are imposed without consent, cause physical or psychological harm, or are used to humiliate and control a grieving woman.
Where does it happen?
The United Nations has documented harmful widowhood practices in parts of Africa and Asia. The specific rituals and their prevalence differ between communities, and it would be misleading to suggest that all widows in any particular country experience them.
Is it being stopped?
Women’s rights advocates have challenged degrading rites through education, legal reform and campaigns for widows’ inheritance and property rights. Legal remedies may be available under laws addressing assault, coercion, discrimination and gender-based violence, depending on the jurisdiction.
Progress also depends on whether widows can retain access to housing, land, money and family support after their husbands die. In Nigeria, despite the decision in Ukeje v. Ukeje, which was a turning point in protecting and enforcing women’s inheritance rights and reinforcing their constitutional property rights, discrimination against women remains widespread in many states. This is because the practice is deeply entrenched, and women affected by it are often poor, vulnerable and unable to approach the courts to enforce their rights.
A woman should not have to prove that she loved her husband by enduring harm after his death. Mourning is not a crime, and widowhood should not strip anyone of bodily autonomy.
9. Female infanticide
In societies where sons are valued more highly than daughters, that preference can become more than an unfair expectation. It can shape decisions about pregnancy, childbirth and the care a child receives. Gender-biased sex selection can include sex-selective abortion or other methods used to avoid the birth of a girl. Female infanticide refers specifically to the killing of a female infant after birth. These are distinct practices, although both can be connected to son preference.
Discrimination may also take less immediately visible forms: girls being given less food, denied medical care or educated less than their brothers. Not every instance of son preference leads to sex selection or violence, but severe gender inequality can create conditions in which girls’ lives and needs are systematically undervalued.
Where does it happen?
UNFPA has documented gender-biased sex selection in parts of South and East Asia, the Caucasus and the Balkans. The specific patterns vary by country and region, and the scale of female infanticide is difficult to measure because cases can go unreported.
Is it being stopped?
Some countries have introduced laws against sex selection, strengthened protections for girls and invested in programmes that challenge son preference. In India, the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act 1994 prohibits sex selection and regulates prenatal diagnostic techniques to prevent their misuse.
However, laws alone cannot undo the economic and social systems that make sons appear more valuable than daughters. Women’s inheritance rights, equal access to education, reproductive autonomy and public attitudes towards girls all matter. A girl should not have to justify her existence before she has even taken her first breath.
10. Forced fattening
Imagine being a little girl who is told that she is not eating enough, not because she is hungry, but because her body is not becoming the kind of body society considers desirable. Every meal becomes an ordeal. Refusing food is not an option. And why are you being made to eat until you feel sick? So you will be considered beautiful, prosperous-looking and desirable for marriage.
This is the reality of leblouh, a practice of forced fattening documented particularly in Mauritania, in West Africa. Girls, sometimes as young as five, may be made to consume excessive quantities of food to gain weight rapidly. In communities where a fuller female body has traditionally been associated with beauty, prosperity and marriageability, a girl’s weight can be treated as a measure of her family’s status and her prospects of finding a husband.
The practice can involve force, punishment and other forms of physical coercion when girls refuse to eat. Some documented accounts describe girls being pinched, beaten or otherwise hurt to make them finish their food. This is not simply a beauty routine or a cultural preference for curvier bodies. The defining concern is the coercion of children and the harm inflicted on them in pursuit of a particular ideal.
Where does it happen?
Leblouh is most closely associated with Mauritania, where it has been documented particularly among some Arab communities. Research found that nearly one-quarter of women surveyed in its Mauritanian study reported having been force-fed as children. Similar pre-marriage fattening customs have been reported elsewhere in West Africa, but they should not automatically be treated as equivalent: the age of the women involved, the methods used and whether participation is voluntary can differ significantly.
Is it being stopped?
Activists, women’s rights organisations and health researchers have challenged forced fattening by highlighting its effects on girls’ physical health, bodily autonomy and wellbeing. Ultimately, ending forced fattening requires challenging the belief that a girl’s body should be altered to secure her future through marriage. Girls should be able to eat according to their needs, grow without coercion and decide what happens to their bodies without being punished for failing to meet somebody else’s beauty standards.
The real horror is that these practices are still happening.
It is tempting to treat harmful practices as relics of the past, as though education and modernisation will automatically make them disappear. The evidence tells a more complicated story.
Some practices are declining. Others persist despite decades of advocacy and legal reform. Still others remain difficult to measure because the people affected are afraid to speak, the violence occurs in private or the institutions responsible for protection fail to act.
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals include targets to eliminate harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation. But global progress remains insufficient to achieve those goals by 2030 without significantly faster action.
Laws matter. So do education, economic independence, accessible healthcare, safe reporting mechanisms and the work of local organisations supporting survivors. Just as importantly, communities must be able to challenge harmful norms without the people speaking out being isolated or punished.
And we must be careful not to turn the women and girls affected into spectacles. Their experiences deserve more than shock value. They deserve to be understood, believed and taken seriously.
Fictional horror is frightening because it asks us to imagine the worst things that could happen. These practices demand something harder: that we acknowledge the things that are already happening, recognise the people working to end them, and refuse to accept that tradition, family reputation or social expectations can justify them.
