LAS VEGAS, Feb. 14 – Eight women are about to receive a highly unusual and belated Valentine – the ability to achieve physical satisfaction during sex after being forcibly deprived of that capacity in childhood through female genital mutilation (FGM), an act of horrific brutality.

Initiated by Rael, leader of the Raelian Movement, the non-profit, all-volunteer organization Clitoraid, based in Las Vegas, announced today that its second round of female genital mutilation (FGM) reversal surgeries will take place March 2-3 in Trinidad, Colo.


Dr. Marci Bowers
Trinidad is where Dr. Marci Bowers, Clitoraid’s head surgeon, practices.
“FGM is common in many countries, even in the United States in some ethnic neighborhoods,” said Clitoraid representative Nadine Gary. “Clitoraid’s twin mission is to end FGM worldwide and to help as many victims as possible through surgery.”

A specialist in pelvic and sex-related surgery, Bowers went to France to learn the new procedure developed by Dr. Pierre Foldes that successfully restores clitoral functioning to FGM victims. In 2009, having learned the technique directly from Foldes, she became the first U.S. surgeon to successfully perform this type of restorative surgery when several Clitoraid-sponsored women traveled to Bowers’ clinic to have the operation.

“Dr. Bowers was the first American doctor to volunteer her services, said Clitoraid representative Nadine Gary. “We’re hoping more will follow, since the need is great.”
Gary said the new surgery could change the lives of millions of FGM victims worldwide, restoring the capacity for pleasure most of us take for granted.

“Waris Dirie, whose true-life story was told in the movie “Desert Flower, was just one of countless FGM victims,” she said. “But their suffering can now be relieved, because Clitoraid offers the possibility of restoring what was so horribly taken away. We just need much greater public awareness about this issue. The more funds we raise, the more victims we can help.” Gary said FGM is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. “That’s why Clitoraid is building its first clitoral repair hospital in Burkina Faso, where victims will be treated for free,” Gary said. “Construction is almost finished and Dr. Bowers will perform the new hospital’s first surgeries on site in June. She’ll also train local doctors to perform the procedure so more women can be helped.”

In the interim, Bowers will operate on the second group of Clitoraid-sponsored victims at her Colorado clinic in March. The eight patients range in age from 22 to over 50 and represent four continents. Their countries of origin include Japan, Korea, Liberia, Austria, Canada and the United States.

Poignant stories of suffering and new hope
“Those having the surgery have just one thing in mind – to get their pleasure and dignity back,” Gary said. “They know what they’ve missed. One woman is having the surgery so she won’t be the mutilated bride her relatives intended her to be. She’s getting married soon and wants to enjoy the physical part of things along with her husband. She had the courage to defy tradition, and we’re hoping many others will follow in her footsteps.”
Another of the eight patients resigned from a teaching position to have the procedure and plans to leave her homeland permanently.

“She wants to leave that place of dreadful memories behind,” Gary explained. “After the surgery, she’s moving to another country to begin a new life, a life in which she can be a complete woman at last.”
Yet another patient (whose name is withheld to protect her privacy) gave Clitoraid a poignant, written summary of the atrocity she experienced as a helpless child.

“All I remember is going to bed one night, having breakfast the next morning and then having two ladies hold my legs while another woman came toward me with a razor,” the woman wrote. “I struggled and managed at one point to escape, but they just came after me in the street and held me down again. I weep as I type this, because this memory is so horrible. I spent weeks recovering, with ropes tied around my legs.”


Dr. Larry Ashley
Pre-surgery, each patient will receive free, private counseling from Dr. Larry Ashley, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, professor who specializes in sexual trauma.

“FGM not only cuts the flesh but affects its victims mentally and emotionally for the rest of their lives,” Gary said. “They feel guilty and ashamed about pleasure and sensuality and those feelings are deeply ingrained. That’s why Clitoraid considers counseling as important as the surgery itself, and we made sure to include it in our program.”
She added that the new patients will also have the opportunity to take part in a workshop that incorporates the self-love teachings of sexologist Betty Dodson, who volunteered to assist the women during the post-op months of the recovery process.

How clitoral repair surgery restores pleasure
“The restoration [of sexual pleasure] is possible because the entire clitoris is sensory, not just the amputated portion,” Bowers explained. “Sensation is robbed [through FGM] because the amputated portion retracts back and then gets covered by scar tissue. The clitoris is foreshortened by FGM but it isn’t removed – not even a majority of it. The restoration surgery exposes the clitoral stump. Then, with plastic surgery techniques, we are able to bring the exposed portion to the surface, suture it there and even create new labia minora in many cases by utilizing the available surrounding skin. The exposed sensory portion, free of overlying skin and scar tissue, is then there to function.”

Please download Clitoraid Info Package Clitoraid Information Package 2009

PRESS RELEASE
15th August 2009

Upon learning that the Breast Cancer Foundation has declined to accept a donation of $5000 by the organizers of “Boobs on Bikes” and the Erotica Lifestyle Expo, Steve Crowe has announced that he has withdrawn the pledge and will instead support Clitoraid, the USA - based organization which aims to help repair women around the world who have suffered genital mutilation.

"The NZ breast cancer foundation’s refusal to accept the donation on the grounds that it is ‘morally unethical’ is surely a case of discrimination and hypocrisy toward an organization that merely seeks to gain a wider acceptance of sexuality and break down antiquated social taboos." declares Mark Woodgate, Clitoraid's representative in NZ

Clitoraid would like to assure Steve Crow and the organizers of Erotica that this act of generosity will not go unnoticed and therefore graciously accepts this pledge on behalf of the women of the world who suffer from this abhorrent form of abuse.

Clitoraid is a non-profit humanitarian organization founded by RAEL, leader of the Raelian Movement.

“Like 'Boobs on Bike' activists, Clitoraid's members are proud to help destroy sexually related taboos and discrimination” adds Mark Woodgate. “We have been facing serious discriminative treatments at Clitoraid, mainly because of our stand for the right to all to have sexual pleasure. It is great to see that organizations facing similar discriminative treatments can help each other.”

Clitoraid has been invited to participate at the Erotica Lifestyles Expo at the ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane in Auckland from Fri 25th – Sun 27th September to continue to raise funds for the victims of female genital mutilation in Africa.

Thanks to a new and innovative surgical procedure, it is now possible for the victims of clitoral excision to have their clitoris rebuilt and Clitoraid has contributed to train several doctors to perform this surgery and is now building the very first “Pleasure Hospital” in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, where African women who wish to have their clitoris repaired and sexual pleasure regained will be able to do so, at no cost to them!

Each year, millions of African girls suffer the barbaric practice of having their clitoris excised against their will. This is done so that these women will not be able to find sex pleasurable and thus, they will be more likely to remain a man’s “property”. According to some sources, up to 98% of the women in certain African countries have been genitally mutilated!

Clitoraid is hoping to reach the hearts of hundreds of sexually open-minded people who attend the Erotica Lifestyles Expo.

For additional information, please visit www.clitoraid.org

NZ Clitoraid Representative: Mark Woodgate: email: nz@clitoraid.org

Medellin, Colombia. Allan Rojas, President of the Raelian Movement responds to the article published in El Tiempo newspaper written by journalist José Alberto Mojica regarding the Colombian women from the indigenous community of Embrera in the Department of Risaralda who are suffering from the atrocities of the excision, or feminine genital mutilation which is the equivalent of masculine castration, and considers it to be a total barbaric practice. Senor Rojas said: “It is a crime against humanity that today, in the 21st Century, indigenous women are slaves of such barberic practices such as clitoral mutilation in the name of religious tradition in addition to being dominated by machismo of the so called indigenous tribes. ‘’The Colombian government has to stop this crime right now! Now that we have the possibility to help these women regain their sexual pleasure, thanks to medical advances and scientific progress, the Government should pay for this surgery by donating money to Clitoraid and doing so help these mutilated women”, added Rojas.

Clitoraid, a private non-profit organization founded by RAEL, spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement who is PRO Human Rights, helps women and young girls of the World from all ages who have suffered these crimes to regain the ability to have sexual pleasure. ‘’Thank to techniques developed by Dr. Pierre Foldes (in France) who performs the reconstructive surgery of the clitoris using its root, mutilated women of Embera will get back their dignity’’, concluded Alan Rojas.

The “Adopt a Clítoris” campaign that Clitoraid is conducting, was created to collect funds to finance the construction of “Pleasure Hospitals”; the first one being built in Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso, in Africa, where 80% of women have suffered sexual mutilation. This hospital will be inaugurated very soon and will accommodate the women absolutely free of charge, using the services of volunteer doctors like Dr. Bowers from Colorado (USA) who collaborates actively with Clitoraid, and thanks to the funds collected from Clitoraid, has successfully performed the reconstructive surgeries to several women in the US. Like it did for Doctor Bowers, Clitoraid is willing to organize the training of volunteer doctors from Colombia who would be willing to provide their expertise to repair the mutilated Colombian women as well as give time later at the Pleasure Hospitals in Africa.

If you wish to participate organizing fundraising in your community to help these indigenous women of Embera, please contact us and will be provided with all the information and the support to succeed. You may visit for more information.

For interviews, please contact 315-354-6458, or send an email to: -email-

UNLV professor assembling expert team to assist victims of female genital mutilation

LAS VEGAS, April 13– Clitoraid, a non-profit, U.S.-based organization, announced today that on March 27, Dr. Marci Bowers performed the first clitoral repairs ever made in the United States at her Colorado clinic, successfully restoring clitoral functioning to three victims of female genital mutilation (FGM) currently residing in the United States.

In a related development, Dr. Larry Ashley of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has accepted the task of assembling a team of experts to design a protocol that will help additional millions of FGM victims.

Clitoraid, which is spearheading these efforts, was founded by Rael, who is also the founder and leader of the International Raelian Movement. With Clitoraid’s assistance, scores of African women are already signing up for the procedure that restores the organ of sexual pleasure.

Dr. Bowers offered to help Clitoraid's team about a year ago. After being trained by Dr. Pierre Foldes, the French surgeon who developed the new restoration technique in Paris, she decided to allocate time for operating on genitally mutilated women living in the United States. She also volunteered to perform such surgeries at The Pleasure Hospital, also known as Kamkaso Hospital, in Burkino Faso, Africa, which is currently under construction through Clitoraid fundraising efforts. Thousands of women are awaiting the hospital's completion so they can have the surgery.

In the meantime, Clitoraid is lining up pre-surgical and post-surgical counseling as an adjunct to the procedure.

"After meeting with the desperate women before and after the operation in Colorado that entirely restored their sexuality, we realized that helping them with surgery wasn't enough," said Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, president of Clitoraid. "Their psychological scars are at least as deep as the physical scars treated through surgery, and there's no need to say how thrilled we were when we received an inquiry from Dr. Ashley. After our first meeting, he agreed to put a team together to help these mutilated women psychologically both before and after the surgery!”

Larry Ashley is Addictions Specialist and Associate Professor in Residence for the Department of Counselor Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He specializes in the treatment of combat and sexual traumas, with a primary focus on the training and mentoring of addiction and trauma professionals.

For the Clitoraid collaboration, he will assemble and train a team of community providers and graduate students to provide counseling and therapy for FGM victims before surgery and to follow-up after the procedure.

After his first meeting with one of the women who had the surgery March 27, he confirmed his enthusiasm.

"Of all of the sexual trauma survivors I've worked with, the women who are victims of female genital mutilation are among the most psychologically impacted I've have been associated with," he said. "I feel very fortunate that I can help. There is a tremendous need to have emotional aid available as well as corrective surgery."