It is believed by some people that like the male children, female children must also be circumcised. They base their opinion on the following Hadith:  

  حدثني يحيى عن مالك عن بن شهاب عن سعيد بن المسيب أن عمر بن الخطاب وعثمان بن عفان وعائشة زوج النبي كانوا يقولون إذا مس الختان الختان فقد وجب الغسل (مؤطّا رقم: 102 )

‘Umar and ‘Uthman and A’ishah, the wife of the Prophet, used to say: ‘When the circumcised part touches the circumcised part, the ceremonial bath becomes obligatory’. (Mua’tta, No: 102)

 This misconception has arisen because of a literal translation of the above Hadith.

If linguistic principles are given due consideration, the Arabic word Khitan used in the Hadith and translated as ‘the circumcised part’, actually implies the male and female reproductive organs.

In the Arabic language, there is a style called Mujanasah which means using similar words such that the second used word does not do the job of conveying its original meaning but rather being of the same genre and category as the previous one. We have examples of such usage in the Qur’an also. For example a verse says: 

وَجَزَاء سَيِّئَةٍ سَيِّئَةٌ مِّثْلُهَا (40:42)

The recompense of evil is similar evil. (42:40)

 Here, the word evil used second is merely for Mujanasah ie. it does not do convey its original meaning; it is only of the same genre. Of course, the reward of evil is not a similar evil for the reward is a just act which the perpetrator of evil deserves; this act of justice cannot be called evil in the literal sense.

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