Talk:Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions

Copied from User talk:Flynnjed

I don't want to come across as over-zealous and impatient, but I have a lot more I hope to contribute on FGM (and possibly eventually on MGM/circumcision). I think that the issue may be better presented over several pages. In the sandbox, I'm currently sketching out something on the social origins of FGM (the hadith that explicitly mention FGM do not alone explain the existence of FGM): Islamic doctrine - especially on polygyny - also creates conditions that are favourable to FGM, that can make FGM (or related practices) 'useful' or even 'necessary'. As far as I can tell, this is a new perspective on FGM (at least I've not read it articulated elsewhere) though it is entirely a product of established and authoritative work on FGM, polygyny and Islam. Flynnjed (talk) 06:13, 17 March 2021 (UTC)

I agree with you entirely - FGM and MGM should each have their own pages on the wiki. ATM, there is only a QHS page on FGM, which, like all QHS pages, is simply intended as a place to compile primary sources. The sort of work you are doing is better suited to a dedicated FGM page and MGM page. I've gone ahead and made this page for FGM. You should move your substantive edits to that page instead (and add a lead, etc. - the QHS page should really just be primary sources with an optional text summary of the quotes/any given section of quotes, as you can see on any other QHS page). For MGM, perhaps the page is better titled 'Male Circumcision in Islamic Law', as this is how it is more commonly known. Alternatively, we could have a page titled 'Khitan (Circumcision) in Islamic Law' which could be for either Male circumcision alone or both FGM and Male circumcision. What are your thoughts? IbnPinker (talk) 15:31, 17 March 2021 (UTC)

>"For MGM, perhaps the page is better titled 'Male Circumcision in Islamic Law', as this is how it is more commonly known."

I agree - it would be best to use the term that people coming to WikiIslam would be most familiar with and most likely to search for.

>"Alternatively, we could have a page titled 'Khitan (Circumcision) in Islamic Law' which could be for either Male circumcision alone or both FGM and Male circumcision. What are your thoughts?"

TBH I'm not sure. Could we return to this question as I become more experienced and get a clearer picture of things? There are commonalities between FGM and Male Circumcision, but there are enough differences to make me cautious about associating them on too general a level. Maybe a page for 'Genital Mutilations' which gave an overview of things, and where the commonalities and differences between Male Circumcision and FGM can be outlined? Such a page could include a section clarifying the definitions of terms associated with genital mutilation - 'khitan' in particular, but also 'khaffad' and 'bazr' (there may be some other terms associated with male circumcision - I have yet to investigate this).

>"I just posted a brief summary of FGM I'd written elsewhere on the wiki on the FGM page for the time being, see what you think."

What you've written is good. I'll check my notes to see if I have anything to add - maybe we could add sections for each school - I seem to remember that their position on FGM (and other matters) depends a lot on how they make a heirarch of their interpretative resources (itjma, qiyas etc). I've a few notes on Shia, Ibadi Islam too I think. I like using paired maps - for example a map showing the distribution of schools of Islam and another showing the distributions of FGM - but I also note that there are not many visuals in WikiIslam - other than the home page. Is this a policy? Flynnjed (talk) 09:50, 18 March 2021 (UTC)

I agree on leaving further discussion of page names to the future. Visuals and videos are completely allowed on wikiislam. I would even encourage them where they help explain content. You can upload images here: https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Special:Upload (this is linked in the left side bar menu at the bottom and titled 'upload file') IbnPinker (talk) 15:41, 18 March 2021 (UTC)

is the lead too long? I've tried to introduce the sections in the main body and to relate them to one another a bit, but it looks like a lot of words.

I think the length is fine. I'd say its about as long as a wiki lead can get without being unwieldy. I certainly wouldn't make it any longer is all. Great work.