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

Original post by Alex