In pictures: Force Fed

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Obesity obsession

In Mauritania, when it comes to women, for many people fat is beautiful.

Here in this desert country, where poverty and malnutrition affect many, obesity is seen as a badge of wealth and prestige.

But for some young women, getting fat is hard work.

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Groomed for marriage

The quest for obesity is driving some women in outlying villages to force-feed their daughters and granddaughters.

Momta, an imposing grandmother and expert force-feeder, says: "For us, a girl who has not been force-fed is ugly, not beautiful, and shes a source of shame to her family."

Momta believes that if a girl is fat she will attract a richer husband.

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Early puberty

As soon as the rains come and the cattle start to produce milk, the force-feeding begins.

Girls as young as seven are forced to drink vast quantities of milk and eat couscous.

Their elders believe the high nutritional value of this food will trigger early puberty and therefore enable them to marry the girls off as soon as possible.

Momtas granddaughter Souadou is 10 years old and her grandmother waves a stick as she watches the child struggle to swallow.

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Finger clamp

Souadous fingers are often clamped between two sticks, a frequently-used instrument of torture.

This, her grandmother explains, will stem her urge to vomit by distracting her with some local pain.

Officially, force-feeding is said to have disappeared after government health campaigns pronounced it wrong, but the message has yet to reach some remote areas of Mauritania.

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Bulimia

The girls' stomachs are stretched to the limit, prompting violent pain and vomiting.

Souadou vomits a lot.

"Im afraid of losing my ability to stand," she says, "of becoming a cripple."

She is right to be afraid. Another few years and she could find herself in hospital.

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Disabled by obesity

Some young women affected suffer from conditions such as early diabetes, heart disease, gallstones and arthritis, which may immobilise and eventually kill them.

The obsession of some Mauritanians with female obesity is continuing to cripple a small but extremely vulnerable sector of its society.