Politician had legs broken ‘to be more credible’

An Australian local politician has had her legs broken and then stretched in an effort to make herself taller and therefore more credible in her career. Hajnal Ban told the Times that she has harboured insecurities about her appearance since she was bullied at school for being a "midget". Since having the operation, which took nine months as surgeons stretched her legs by 1mm every day, Ban has gone from being 5ft 1in tall to what she describes as a "normal" 5ft 4in.

"A lot of young females have insecurities about their weight or their nose, mine was my height," says Ban, a local councillor in Logan City, Queensland. "From the time I flew to Russia [where the operation was done] to the time I was able to wear high heels again was about a year in total, but at least nine months of that was excruciatingly painful," she added.

Ban says that the procedure, which cost her £19,000, is not as uncommon as people think. "You see sports people going in who need that extra height, and models … it's a well-kept secret."

The trend for leg-lengthening, as reported on The First Post earlier this year, has horrified feminists. Possibly with an eye to the negative publicity, 31-year-old Ban says she would not recommend the procedure to anybody. "As much as it worked for me … it is not something I would necessarily promote or endorse... People have to take it up individually."

Ban says that once the current attention has died down she wants people to take her seriously and respect her for the work she does in the local community, rather than just seeing her as "the girl who got her legs lengthened".