Whose body, whose harm? A scoping review of breast ironing seen through the lens of colonial silence, structural violence, and diaspora invisibility

Breast ironing in the form of the deliberate suppression of breast development in adolescent girls using heated objects, affects an estimated 3.8 million women and girls globally, yet remains absent from mainstream gender-based violence scholarship, legal frameworks, and clinical practice, particularly in diasporic contexts. This paper argues this absence is not accidental. Drawing on findings from a scoping review conducted in accordance with PRISMA-ScR guidelines and the Arksey and O'Malley framework, the paper maps the biopsychosocial harm caused by the practice and identifies three interlocking conditions sustaining its invisibility: the colonial gaze with respect to how African women's bodies are selectively researched and represented; the structural violence created by gender inequality, poverty, and sociocultural norms that both drives and conceals the practice; and the vulnerability of diasporic communities where breast ironing takes place beyond the reach of legal frameworks. Eligibility for inclusion in the review followed the Population, Concept, and Context (PCC) framework. Thematic synthesis generated three higher-order themes: embodied harm and its erasure; the structural production of invisibility; and the diaspora as a site of compounded risk. Eradicating breast ironing requires not only legal reform and clinical training, but a rethinking of whose bodies count as worthy of protection.