Talk:Wojdan Shaherkani

Wodjan or Wojdan?
the official London 2012 website gives Wojdan as her name, a lot of newspapers call her Wodjan. are there any reliable sources? the arabic WP gives her name as وجدان (I think), and having this read by google translate sounds a lot like Wojdan |en|وجدان. could this be another case of journalists copying false information from each other? --MarioS (talk) 10:52, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: page has already been moved. P.T. Aufrette (talk) 03:24, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

Wodjan Shaherkani → Wojdan Shaherkani – The latter is the original title. I moved it to Wojdan Shaherkani yesterday because this was the spelling used in most of the sources cited in this article. However, after a little more research I noticed that the "Wojdan" spelling is actually more prevalent in the web (48,800 ghits for "Wojdan Shaherkani" vs 13,600 ghits for "Wodjan Shaherkani"). I don't speak any Arabic, but Romanization of Arabic also seems to suggest that "Wojdan" is the correct transcription of "وجدان". Hopefully some Arabic speakers will weigh in on this.

As a side note, I suspected "Wojdan" to be a typo because it looked suspiciously Polish to me, rather than Arabic. In fact, there is a another judoka who goes by the name Wojdan – Krzysztof Wojdan, a Polish male, who competed at the 2000 Olympics. — Kpalion(talk) 14:13, 31 July 2012 (UTC)
 * i asked the Arabic names task force for help. --MarioS (talk) 14:50, 31 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Whatever the name is, keep the article at one name or the other, include the Arabic rendition of her name in the article, and indicate the alternative transliteration in the text of the article lead. (I've added the alternative transliteration, but I don't do Arabic.) A short survey of some of the cited sources, plus a few other English-language sources, leads me to conclude that neither of these spellings is wrong, and the differences in spelling are not correlated with the geographic location of the source. There may be some correlation with the date of the item, in that Wodjan was used more often in early July, while Wojdan is more common now, but this isn't consistent:
 * NBC Olympics, undated: Wojdan
 * Global Post, 12 July: Wodjan
 * New York Times, 12 July: Wodjan
 * Bahrain Chronicle, 13 July: Wodjan
 * The Guardian, 13 July: Wodjan
 * New Straits Times, 14 July: Wodjan
 * Al Arabiya, 29 July: Wodjan (same spelling in two Al Arabiya articles on 30 July)
 * BBC, 31 July: Wojdan
 * Emirates 24/7, 31 July: Wojdan
 * NDTV Sports, 31 July: Wojdan
 * Daily Mail, 31 July: Wodjan
 * Wall Street Journal, 31 July: Wojdan
 * New York Times, 31 July: Wodjan
 * Fox News, 31 July: Wojdan
 * --Orlady (talk) 15:43, 31 July 2012 (UTC)
 * It's amazing how quickly one typo will spread when news media feed off each other.... I'm not sure a simple typo is noteworthy the lede however. In ictu oculi (talk) 01:52, 3 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Arabic speaker here: Based on the Arabic spelling of her name, "Wojdan" appears to be correct.
 * Al-Jazeera
 * Al-Arabiya
 * Wrad (talk) 16:13, 31 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Comment: I can't access English versions of the articles directly from those pages. On the English version of Al Jazeera, I find her full name rendered "Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani". (Note that the spelling of the family name is also different from this article name.) As noted above, English Al Arabiya gives her name as Wodjan Shaherkani. --Orlady (talk) 16:43, 31 July 2012 (UTC)
 * given that the official London 2012 website and Wrad favour "Wojdan" while the news sources are divided (I am not sure if the editors at English Al Arabiya speak Arabic), I support moving the article to "Wojdan" and using this as the spelling in the article. We could have a short sentence in the intro explaining that many news sources transcribe her name as "Wodjan" while leaving open the reasons for this. The two versions would be pronounced differently, wouldn't they? This is not the case for the two versions of her last name, so this could be explained by the use of a different system of transcription. --MarioS (talk) 20:43, 31 July 2012 (UTC)


 * These are just personal observations but the name is usually pronounced (and often spelt) "Wijdan" in Saudi Arabia. The Wiktionary entry supports this.  The first vowel is short and not that clear and Saudi officials are notorious for applying outrageous mistakes when Romanising names anyway.  —  AjaxSmack   01:44, 1 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Support Wojdan - I have not waited and provisionally corrected first line from "Wodjan" to "Wojdan" in lede, we cannot leave that in a BLP lede for the length of an RM during a period when she'll be most notable, but as AjaxSmack correctly notes وجدان is usually transcribed Wijdan and really by WP:OPENPARA and WP:BLP Wijdan should really be in the lede even if the London registration means "Wojdan" is common name. The surname issue is less clearcut. In ictu oculi (talk) 01:48, 3 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Support Wojdan - from WP:COMMONNAME: "The most common name for a subject, as determined by its prevalence in reliable English-language sources, is often used as a title because it is recognizable and natural. Editors should also consider the criteria outlined above. Ambiguous or inaccurate names for the article subject, as determined in reliable sources, are often avoided even though they may be more frequently used by reliable sources." I think the case is quite clear. according to WP:RM/CI, I am not allowed to move the page, since I participated in the discussion. we have a consensus, so I think the move should be done as quickly as possible, before the games are over. --MarioS (talk) 12:39, 3 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes I absolutely agree with this - MarioS do you want to contact Orlady please, if he agrees then we can close this and move it. In ictu oculi (talk) 13:41, 3 August 2012 (UTC)
 * it has already been done. thanks, Uishaki. --MarioS (talk) 18:55, 3 August 2012 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Rank
Shaherkani's rank is described as "blue belt". This is not a meaningful rank designation as belt colors below shodan level vary considerably not only from country to country but even by dojo. It would be better to give her rank in terms of kyu level. If she were an American, a "blue belt" would probably mean that she is sankyu, but I don't know what the Saudi belt colors are. Can any Saudi judoists supply this information?Bill (talk) 02:27, 27 June 2015 (UTC)