Clitoraid is a non-profit project started by the Raelian movement to combat female genital mutilation.
The project was started in 2005[1] or 2006.[2] The Raelian movement sees sexual gratification as a positive thing and Clitoraid has sponsored clitoral reconstruction for African women and sought to build a hospital in Burkina Faso[3][4] where they can also receive post-operative instruction in masturbation.[5] Clitoraid has an Adopt a Clitoris sponsorship program,[6] which it has promoted at the AVN Adult Entertainment ExpoinLas Vegas.[1][7]
In 2010, on the encouragement of sexologist Betty Dodson, the San Francisco-based sex shop chain Good Vibrations pledged financial support to Clitoraid including asking customers to make donations; the company rescinded the offer after protests that the effort was misplaced, especially from Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco.[2][8] In 2013, Clitoraid designated the week of 6–12 May as "International Clitoris Awareness Week".[9]
The 2014 opening of the Kamkaso Hospital or The Pleasure Hospital at Bobo-Dioulasso was delayed by the Burkina Faso Ministry of Health.[10] Clitoraid blamed the Catholic Church.[11]
In 2015, in response to a dispute over the circumcision of a four-year-old boy in the US, Clitoraid issued a press release supporting the mother who did not want the circumcision. They also called on the United Nations to ban the practice: "Bodily harm is against the fundamental rights of all children, and we can't understand when a so-called civilized country such as the United States would allow its male babies to be so readily mutilated legally!"[12]
