This issue examines both directions within the equivalence argument: the plausibility of legalization
of FGC, but also the possibility that boys require protection from forms of male genital cutting. This
second possibility – of proposing an age limit or ban on boy circumcision – is also controversial,
particularly at a time in which there is growing concern about anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. This
may, in part, explain worldwide reluctance by otherwise interventionist policy makers to act upon
the similarities of boy and girl circumcision.

Nevertheless, increased concern on children’s rights, anti-circumcision activism and emerging
interest within the media in similarities between girl and boys circumcision mean that the articles in
this issue feed into a dynamic set of debates within societies. Indeed, where previous generations
may have cut without question or rejected any discussion of cutting at all, parents may increasingly
need to interrogate the questions of whether, when, how, and on what grounds, they circumcise
their children.