New Delhi: Every child loves going to a summer camp. You tend to meet new friends, take part in fun activities, play, dance, sing. In Mauritania a country in western Africa, has a similar kind of culture of sending the child to a summer camp. But this camp is not at all like a normal summer camp. Here only girls are sent that too not to have fun or to enjoy but rather getting fat and just fat. Yes you heard it right. 

This summer camp or fattening farms receive girls from 5 to 12 years with the motive to make then obese. In Mauritania, where big is beautiful and stretch marks are sexy, young girls are brutally force-fed a diet of up to 16,000 calories a day — more than four times that of a male bodybuilder — to prepare them for marriage.

According to the traditional belief leblouh of Mauritania it’s believed among women, rolling layers of fat are the height of sexiness. The preference originated centuries ago among the Moors, nomadic Muslims of Arabic and Berber stock who make up two-thirds of Mauritania's 3.1 million people. To the ancient Moors, a fat wife (much like fat livestock) was a symbol of a man's wealth, proof that he had enough riches to feed her generously while others perished in the drought-prone terrain.

This tradition was slowing declining until recently when it started acquiring the pace again. The girls are force-fed with goat milk, pint of pounded millet mixed with water, sweets, coconut milk and every other food which can make the girls fat. And if girls restrict or disagree they are subjected to get punished or even forced to eat their vomit if they puke forcefully by an old lady who is the in charge of the camp.  

Leblouh is linked to early marriage. These girls are sent to the fattening farms to achieve the roundness and corpulence. A typical diet for a six year old includes two kilos of pounded milk with camel’s milk along with millets with two cups of butter repeatedly which can make them ill. The fattening is done during the school holidays or in the rainy season when milk is plentiful. 

However the notion of overweight women being desirable seems to be petering out, though very gradually. While a generation ago, over a third of women in the country was force-fed as children, now only around one in 10 girls are treated this way, a study by the Mauritanian ministry of health has found.