الرئيسية
The United Arab Emirates announced Wednesday that
children of Emirati women married to foreigners could apply for
citizenship once they turned 18, moving closer to giving women the same
nationality rights as men.(AFP/Marwan Naamani)
By AFP
ABU DHABI (AFP) - The United Arab Emirates announced
Wednesday that children of Emirati women married to foreigners could
apply for citizenship once they turned 18, moving closer to giving women
the same nationality rights as men.
President Sheikh Khalifa bin
Zayed Al-Nahayan decreed that the "children of women citizens married
to foreigners should be treated as citizens," WAM state news agency
reported.
In the move, the children are to get the "right to apply for citizenship when they reach 18," it added.
Most
Arab countries link nationality to blood relation from the father's
side, disenfranchising women who face various forms of gender
discrimination across the region.
Tunisia had for a long time
been the only country that gave men and women equal nationality rights
with few other countries responding to continued campaigns for the
regulation to be changed.
But in 2005, Algeria amended its
nationality law, giving women the right to pass citizenship to their
foreign husbands and children.
In 2007, Morocco said the children
of Moroccan women will automatically get the nationality, while foreign
husbands can demand the citizenship after five years of marriage and
residency in the country.
Egypt followed suit giving women the right to pass their citizenship to their children.
The campaign continues in many other Arab countries.