From a BBC article a couple of years ago:
Obesity is so revered among Mauritania's white Moor Arab population that the young girls are sometimes force-fed to obtain a weight the government has described as "life-threatening".
A generation ago, over a third of women in the country were force-fed as children - Mauritania is one of the few African countries where, on average, girls receive more food than boys.
Link - via mentalfloss
More wife fattening at Kircher Society (this time in the island of Tabar off the coast of Papua New Guinea) and Museum of Hoaxes
How ironic...here in the States it's an unsightly crisis, over there it's considered "beautiful". Well, to the GUYS at least.
Yuck. There's no accounting for taste, I guess...
--TwoDragons