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Lebanese Women’s Council and My Nationality reject chauvinist nationality law amendment
27-3-2018
The Lebanese Women’s Council and My Nationality is a Right for Me and My Family campaign announced in a joint public statement yesterday their rejection of the fourth paragraph of Jibran Bassil’s draft amendment of the current nationality law. The proposed law allows Lebanese women to pass nationality to their children with an added clause excluding what the text refer to as “neighboring states”, and this applies also to men wed to Syrian or Palestinian refugees in an aim to prevent settlement, according to the current foreign minister. The statement went on to say that, such defenses are totally rejected, because the right and freedom to marry for both Lebanese men and women is a constitutional right. Naturalization is to grant Lebanese citizenship to any non-Lebanese, who is not related to the country from his/her mother’s or father’s side, whereas resettlement is an international political matter that is completely different from the individual constitutional rights of citizens, the statement explained. The above clause prevents the Lebanese man from passing nationality to his children if his spouse is a national of a neighboring country, which is unacceptable, because women demand equality with men to this effect. Moreover, the exception-paragraph did not specify exactly what is meant by “neighboring countries”, hence left it open to interpretation. LCW-My Nationality statement also pointed out that the draft proposal stems from a distinction between men and women to a distinction between a man married to any woman and another married to a neighboring country national, up to a distinction between a woman married to a foreigner and another wed to a national from a neighboring state. It did not determine the criteria to draw a line between he who entered Lebanon as a refugee or displaced and he who has long been living and investing in the country and married to a Lebanese. In conclusion, the statement asked: “Does the Lebanese State keep registers of the refugees or displaced citizens? Do we have to ask our Arab brothers not to marry Lebanese women?”. (An Nahar, March 27, 2018 )
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- العربية
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