“The goal is to help as many victims as possible have this surgery, which will also help discourage the barbaric practice of FGM,” Nadine Gary said. “When its effects can be surgically reversed for free, what would be the point?” - Photo Credit: Clitoraid |
However,
Clitoraid’s team said it will hold “building inauguration ceremony” at
its delayed facility on March 7 and launch surgeries at another hospital.
The clitoral repair hospital
for victims of female Genital Mutilation (FGM), known as the
Kamkaso (house of women) Hospital, in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, is nicknamed
“the Pleasure Hospital”.
Suddenly withdrawn
Chantal Compaore, the First Lady of Burkina Faso, was to preside at the opening ceremony of the hospital built with donated funds and through the efforts of worldwide volunteers.
“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the government has suddenly withdrawn its approval for surgeries to be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,” She said. “Clitoraid
will seek immediate legal redress through the courts.”
She
said the request for licensure of the new hospital was submitted in 2011 and they
received repeated assurances from regional and national officials that the
hospital could open on March 7.
Vatican City (Photo credit: @Doug88888) |
'Accomplice of
criminals'
“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.”
She
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.”
Clitoraid
quoted 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 as saying: “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!”
80
women have been lined up in Bobo-Dioulasso to have their free surgery between
March 3 and March 14. The surgeries will be done at the hospital of a doctor
friend who will host Clitoraid’s medical team, who are licensed to perform
surgeries in Burkina Faso.
“After the United Nations adopted a resolution banning FGM, there’s been universal agreement that it’s a violation of human rights and the integrity of individuals. And eliminating FGM is essential for women’s health, so governments must keep passing laws against it,” Gary said.
Clitoraid is an international non-profit organization offering
clitoral repair surgery to FGM victims.
Source: Clitoraid/Written by TNBES
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