Wow, it's just like opening a present!
Really, there's pratices like this all over the world. It's just a means of controlling women. Another example is footbinding in Asia (which, thankfully, no longer exists). It's this pratice that created the stereotypical image of the hobbling little Chinese woman taking those tiny little steps.
http://www.csuchico.edu/~cheinz/syll...nzey/what.html
http://www.csuchico.edu/~cheinz/syll...inzey/who.html
