Manama: King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa yesterday granted Bahraini
citizenship to 300 children of Bahraini mothers married to
foreigners.
The decision was hailed by women rights activists as a
much-needed move "to rectify a blatant social injustice against
women and end the suffering and exclusion of many families".
Bahrain's citizenship law allows Bahraini fathers to transmit
their nationality to their children born in or outside the kingdom,
but there is no similar right for Bahraini mothers. Women rights
activists have been campaigning for an amendment of the law, citing
severe integration issues, family instability and social
insecurity.
"The constitution guarantees gender equality in everything as
part of international agreements Bahrain has signed," women's rights
activist Esmat Al Mousawi yesterday told Gulf News. "So, it is with
immense pleasure that we receive such wonderful news as granting
Bahraini citizenship to the children of Bahraini mothers married to
foreigners."
Campaigns by official and civil society organisations to remove
the discrimination against Bahraini women in passing their
nationality to their children have been resisted by the authorities
on the grounds that several non-Bahraini men were marrying Bahraini
women in order to become eligible for the nationality.
"The point was not to allow these men to use Bahraini women to
achieve a new legal status in Bahrain," said Al Mousawi, a member of
the Supreme Council for Women.
Many Bahraini women are married to men of Palestinian, Jordanian,
Egyptian, Yemeni, Iranian, Pakistani and Indian origin. Official
figures of children of Bahraini women and foreign fathers are not
available. |