Neck Rings in Thailand

After reading the previous posts about cultural traditions and mistreating women, I was reminded of something I watched in my high school religion class. It was and episode of the National Geographic series Taboo. This episode was about body modification. What stands out to me from the show was a practice that takes place in Thailand. Some women in Thailand are forced to wrap their necks in brass wire. The binding process begins at a young age and has to be redone as the girls get older. The process of wrapping their necks as well as wearing the coils is unpleasant to say the least. The brass wire is relatively think and wrapped around the necks several times to cover the entire neck. The coils stretch out the necks of the women and leave rather large scars and bruises. The women are never to take the coils off and if they do it is a sign that they have committed adultery. The only other way the women will take the coils off is if they have to see a doctor or to have a baby. Often when children have the coils place around their necks it is very painful and hard for them to deal with. Also, the process of stretching the neck over time is quite painful.

I understand that each culture has something different that they do that makes them unique. I also agree that it is important to have individuality. I do have a major problem with this however, because it is causing serious harm to these woman and children. Stretching out their necks is something that these women will never be able to change. I do not think that they should have to go through all of this to only cause themselves harm.

I have included a brief video from YouTube that shows a woman getting her coils off and the harm that they caused her.