Montreal, November 25th, 2010 - As part of the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women”, Clitoraid invites the public to a silent march to be held Sunday, Nov. 28th in Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto. (* see details below).

The United Nations General Assembly, in 1999, designated November 25th the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women” (http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/violence) and invited governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations to organize activities on that day designed to raise public awareness of the problem.

Unfortunately, in the list of acts of violence against women, female genital mutilation (FGM or “cutting”) appears as the most common.

The World Health Organization estimates that worldwide, 100 to 150 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation. Each year 2 million more girls are likely to suffer the same fate. Most of them live in 28 African countries, a smaller number in the Middle East and Asian countries. But there are more and more in Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America.

In May 2006, in response to those stunning statistics, RAEL, the spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement, founded CLITORAID (www.clitoraid.org) a private non-profit organization whose objective is to raise public awareness of this terrible reality. Clitoraid’s main purpose is to raise funds to help African women, with very limited financial means, undergo surgery towards the reconstruction of their clitoris. This technique, which was scientifically validated by Dr. Foldes (France), currently allows women of all ages who have suffered “cutting”, to regain clitoral pleasure and to feel whole again.

For more information contact our press office, at: 1-877-793-3126
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A “Silent March” will be held in the following Canadian cities

Sunday, November 28th, 2010 :

QUEBEC :
Sunday Nov. 28th - 12:30 pm
Place d'Youville, in front of La Pointe des Amériques.


MONTREAL :
Sunday Nov. 28th - 1:30 pm
Phillips Square park, across from The Bay


OTTAWA :
Sunday Nov. 28th - 12:30 pm
Corner of Rideau and William, on the south side


VANCOUVER :
Sunday Nov. 28th - 1:00 pm
Robson Square, On Robson Street between Howe Street and Hornby Street


TORONTO :
11:00 am (Saturday, November 27th)
Dundas Square, corner of Yonge and Dundas


The public will be invited to make donations to support “cut” women!

Following the Aug. 10, 2010, publication of an Associated Press article, "Female circumcision victims seek out Colo. doctor," by Catherine Tsai, Clitoraid and Dr. Marci Bowers MD wish to clarify where donations should be sent and explain Clitoraid's role in the surgical process.

Nowhere in her article did Tsai mention Clitoraid, the parent, non-profit organization Dr. Bowers has been generously volunteering for since 2007. Therefore, the article failed to give a complete picture of the program's international implications. To be clear, Clitoraid (clitoraid.org) offers a humanitarian program to restore damage done by Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in North America, Asia and especially in Africa. Clitoraid is in the final stages of building a hospital in Burkina Faso (West Africa) to treat all FGM victims free of charge. Dr. Bowers will inaugurate the hospital once it is ready.

Donations will go toward the Burkina Faso hospital. It is in that vicinity that the largest number of FGM victims reside and where such surgery represents a two-year salary if the average patient were to pay for it. Clitoraid has been a 501 (c) 3 non profit organization since 2006.
Therefore, circumcised women seeking repair and those making donations should contact Clitoraid at , not Dr. Bowers.

"Clitoraid should be given first consideration when considering a donation of any kind, especially out of respect for our busy staff," Dr. Bowers said, adding that she wants to thank those who have written to her office to make donations following publication of Tsai's article.

It's also important to note that Clitoraid handles all post-surgical sexual therapy care under the guidance of sex therapist Dr. Betty Dodson.

Both Clitoraid and Dr. Bowers' office request that the Associated Press publish this joint statement to properly inform the public about Clitoraid and Dr. Bowers' involvement in this far-reaching, humanitarian endeavor.

Sincerely,

Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, PhD, President of Clitoraid
Dr. Marci Bowers, MD, head Clitoraid Surgeon

Sydney June 2nd, 2010 - "While the International Raelian Movement is based on the protection of cultural rights of any groups, the line is clearly drawn at any form of violence, disrespect or in this case, outright sexual mutilation!" explains Jarel, leader of the Raelian Movement in Australia. "There can be no justification for such a proposal, what is needed is education and support for women that belong to these cultural groups to help them break free and reclaim what they were rightly born with; a beautiful sex and a functioning clitoris. After all, every human being has been designed to experience pleasure."

“The purpose of genital mutilation is one of cultural sacrifice not religious, and its only purpose is to remove any sexual pleasure the woman might experience,” states Zabou, the coordinator for Clitoraid in Australia. "Australia should aim to be the leaders in the reconstruction of the women who have been rendered a life of pain and suffering due to this barbaric practice, and not be part of its survival"

Clitoraid is a non-profit organization that is currently setting up a hospital in Burkina Fasa, run by volunteer doctors dedicated to the reconstruction of the damage millions of women who struggle to live with the painful consequences of female genital mutilation. Clitoraid’s goal is to inform the population, and also to collect funds to finance the construction of this hospital, where the patients will be operated on for free!!

Zabou: “If some group were to remove the hands of children for cultural reason, would the government offers to do it in hospital under the premise that is safer? of course not. the problem lies in the fact that a clitoris is still considered as dirty and useless. This prejudice has led 170 million women in the world to feel incomplete, ignoring the pleasure of orgasm that is now known as contributing to a healthy life. We cannot let our government be an accomplice to such barbaric practice."

Clitoraid has received several requests from Australian women willing to be repaired. One of them will be operated on by our leader surgeon in Colorado this coming Summer.

LAS VEGAS, April 21 – The San Francisco Chronicle, through Caille Millner’s April 14 column “Wrong Approach to ending Genital Mutilation, successfully bullied the San Francisco-based store Good Vibrations to stop all fund raising activities for Clitoraid, a nonprofit organization that offers clitoral repair surgery for victims of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) both here in the United States and worldwide.

Millner and other critics following her lead have questioned the safety and validity of Clitoraid’s reconstructive surgery and expressed concerns about where the donated funds are going. And they say Clitoraid didn’t do an impact study to see how repairing the women’s genitals would affect their local communities.

In response, here is a written statement received at Clitoraid today from a woman born in West Africa. (She now lives in what she described as “a Western country.”)

“The world is now open, and it’s a very small place, with migration at its highest. People are no longer restricted to their villages, towns or countries until death. People are now exposed to other cultures. A lot of women who were circumcised [genitally mutilated] in other parts of the world now live in the West, and we now know that we’ve been violated unnecessarily. There is an awakening, a realization that sex isn’t meant to be a pleasure for the man alone and pain for the woman.

Then there’s the feeling of shame that you are somewhat deformed.

We withdraw from falling in love with [someone of] another nationality because we know the man will be looking and feeling for our clitoris during sex, and there’s embarrassment when we’re asked about our clitoris. Now even our own men prefer women with a clitoris and female orgasm since they see that as validation of their manhood and good performance.

Then we come to the medical aspect of it: childbirth, pap smears and general health checks that involve the vagina. A lot of us refuse to go for these because of the humiliation and embarrassment we face each time from the medical staff through no fault of theirs.

For me, and I guess I'll be speaking for a lot of victims, I feel like an impotent man in a heterosexual relationship.”

“It’s very clear to us at Clitoraid that the criticism we receive is mainly from individuals who don’t consider sexual activity important,” declared Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, head of Clitoraid. “That is definitely the reason why Clitoraid was started by Rael and had such a success among Raelians, since the Raelian philosophy states that having a harmonious sexual life is one of the keys to living a balanced life. A traditional religion offering charitable clitoral repair may be more palatable for Ms. Millner and many members of our society. Unfortunately, no traditional religion will ever create a charity to repair FGM victims. They stop with organizing groups that help with preventive campaigns. None will actually restore the sexual pleasure of those maimed because they all demonize women’s sexuality, sometimes to the point of grossly disfiguring women’s genitalia.”

Boisselier added, “The Raelian Movement, thanks to its pleasure-embracing philosophy, is the only religion working to restore sexual pleasure, and we will continue to do so no matter what opposition stands in our way. We owe it to the 135 million FGM victims who have no other recourse.”

Regarding the lack of scientific data often mentioned by critics, Boisselier said the surgical technique was developed more than 20 years ago by Dr. Pierre Foldes in France and published in a peer review journal, and that it is now practiced by many other surgeons trained by Foldes. Numerous testimonies from women praise his practice.

Nadine Gary, Clitoraid’s international head of operations, said the French health care system has been covering this common surgical procedure in France for years, and that Clitoraid’s head volunteer surgeon, Dr. Marci Bowers, MD, “a brilliant gender reassignment surgeon, will gladly and reliably clarify the steps and results of this surgery for anyone concerned about the validity and safety of this medical procedure.”

Gary said anyone concerned about how Clitoraid’s funds are used should visit , where the organization’s tax return statements are posted.

“I’m sure they’ll be surprised to see that no one in our organization is paid,” Gary said. “The money is so precious that all Clitoraid staffers are volunteers. Every penny goes to the women who call for help. Our reward is to hear about the beautiful, healing results.”

Here is what one of Clitoraid’s patients said after her surgery, according to Gary:

“I feel like every woman feels: I’m going to have the best life, the best marriage.” (Kady, 42, originally from the Ivory Coast)

“Today, two of the women operated on in March called to report that they’ve started having pleasant feelings where only painful scars were before,” Gary said. “And on Clitoraid.org, you can read a Clitoraid patient’s account of the path to her first orgasm after she recovered from FGM reversal surgery. The vibrator that helped her enjoy the first orgasm of her life was donated by Good Vibrations, and she says she can never thank them enough.”