spyghana.com
By APO
According to a statement released today by the nonprofit organization Clitoraid, pressure from the Catholic Church and other detractors of the International Raelian Movement (IRM) has caused Burkina Faso’s government to block the scheduled March 7 opening of Clitoraid’s clitoral repair hospital, known as the Kamkaso Hospital, in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. Nicknamed “the Pleasure Hospital”, the Kamkaso facility is the first of its kind in the world.
“Although the government has suddenly
withdrawn its approval for surgeries to be performed there, this facility, once
open, will provide free surgery for victims of female genital mutilation,” said
Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, president of Clitoraid and spokesperson for the IRM.
“The procedure repairs the physical damage they endured. But this wonderful
mission has now been stymied by the Catholic Church and its cronies, who are
conducting a smear campaign against it for their own selfish motives.”
Boisselier said Clitoraid will seek immediate
legal redress through the courts.
“In the meantime, the surgeries we had
scheduled will still take place over the next few weeks, at another hospital in
Bobo-Dioulasso,” she said. “We’re going ahead as planned.”
She went on to describe why the Kamkaso
Hospital will not open on March 7.
“Although the request for licensure of the
new hospital was submitted in 2011 and we received repeated assurances from
regional and national officials that the hospital could open on March 7,
the health minister of Burkina Faso has explained to a representative of AVFE,
our local Clitoraid partner, that the license will not be approved for our
scheduled inauguration date of March 7,” Boisselier explained.
“Nevertheless, we will go ahead with our inauguration ceremony as planned. And
our surgical team will still operate on the patients scheduled for the
procedure, but that will take place at another hospital.”
She said that an official source who
requested anonymity told her that strong pressure from IRM detractors,
especially the Catholic Church, was responsible for both the license refusal
and the cancellation of the First Lady of Burkina Faso’s participation in the
opening ceremony.
“By seeking to prevent our opening, the
Catholic Church has become an accomplice of the criminals who mutilate the
genitals of African women,” Boisselier declared. “Along with its mission of
restoring mutilated clitorises for FGM victims, Clitoraid’s Pleasure Hospital
will be a strong deterrent to those who still practice this barbaric custom.
They would stop making the excisions since it’s foolish to destroy something
that can be readily restored.”
Boisselier said this stance taken by the
Catholic Church against Clitoraid is hardly a surprise, given the Vatican’s
record.
“Those blocking our opening are the same
criminals who support pedophile priests and money laundering by Vatican banks,”
she said. “And their directives against using condoms are responsible for
thousands of unnecessary AIDS deaths in Africa.”
Boisselier said Clitoraid will take prompt
legal action to open the hospital.
“This pressure to close us down will only
delay the opening,” she said. “Our attorneys are already looking into various
legal options and there will also be worldwide protests in front of Burkina
Faso’s embassies.”
As evidence of the pressures brought by the
Catholic Church, Boisselier cited the following declaration made against the
Kamkaso Hospital by Professor R. Marie Charlemagne Ouedraogo, a Knight of the
French Legion of Honor and Commander of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta,
a well-known branch of the Catholic Church.
“This is a big campaign of fraud organized by
the sect of Rael with the complicity of certain doctors of Burkina Faso! The
health ministry and the governor are beseeched to stop this poisonous campaign!
Also, the complicit doctors will have to appear before the medical board very
soon!”
“How can a doctor who performs these surgeries
himself at very high cost to his patients accuse us of a fraudulent campaign
when his rates are way too high for the poor women who planned to come to the
Kamkaso hospital?” Boisselier asked. “What is the real fraud here? Clitoraid
offers free surgeries performed by competent volunteer doctors, and they follow
a procedure that has been published officially by its originator, Dr. Pierre
Foldes of France. It has already been performed on thousands of women.”
Boisselier went on to elaborate about what she
considers the real reason for the smear campaign against Clitoraid and the
Kamkaso hospital. “The real reason for this delay in the hospital opening
is clearly linked to the fact that this purely humanitarian project was
initiated by Rael, spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement,” she said. “The
people putting pressure against this hospital prefer to pursue a
pseudo-philosophical vendetta for their own profit instead of thinking of the
80 women who will be in Bobo-Dioulasso to have their free surgery between March
3 and March 14.”
According to Boisselier, the surgeries will
be done at the hospital of a doctor friend who will host Clitoraid’s medical
team.
“Our surgeons are licensed to perform
surgeries in Burkina Faso,” she pointed out. “The people responsible for these
pressures against us should be ashamed. The Kamkaso hospital is the collective
effort of thousands of people of various philosophical backgrounds. They have
all contributed to restore the pleasure of life to thousands of women who experienced
deep trauma. To prevent them from receiving this voluntary and free help simply
because the people offering it don’t believe in their god is outrageous. But
this campaign against us is perfectly aligned with other misdeeds of the
Catholic Church, which teaches that suffering is a source of awakening and
ultimate spirituality.”
Boisselier explained that for Raelians,
pleasure is the most beautiful source of fulfillment.
“We will continue doing our best to help FGM
victims get their dignity back as women and enjoy their right to enjoy physical
pleasure and fulfillment,” she said.
The building inauguration ceremony will be
held at Clitoraid’s Kamkaso Hospital on March 7 starting at 10 a.m. A
press conference will follow.
Distributed by APO
(African Press Organization) on behalf of Clitoraid.
