Daily Star - Study Debunks Justification For Maintaining Nationality Law

Only 2 percent of Lebanese women are married to Palestinians

By Dalila Mahdawi
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Those critical of amending Lebanon’s discriminatory nationality law were on Tuesday given food for thought after the publication of a major study proved one of their key arguments baseless. Lebanon’s present nationality law allows men to pass on their nationality to non-Lebanese wives and children one year after their marriage is registered, but prohibits Lebanese women married to non-Lebanese from doing the same.
The National Committee for the Follow up on Women’s Issues (CFUWI), with support from the United Nations Development Program, spent 14 years collecting data on the number of people are affected by the current legislation and how it impacts their lives.
Results from the study, entitled “The predicament of Lebanese women married to non-Lebanese,” show that the current law “negatively affects not only women but rather the whole family,” said Dr. Aman Kabbara Chaarani, president of the National Committee for the Follow-up on Women’s Issues. “The study also proved that denying women the right to pass their nationality to the husbands and children does not only deprive them their fundamental rights as citizens, but also deprives their children of their fundamental rights to live as human beings,” she added.
According to the study, about 18,000 Lebanese women married non-Lebanese men between 1995 and 2008, with 87.5 percent of those women Muslim. It estimated that almost 80,000 individuals are affected by the current nationality law.
Those who oppose granting women nationality rights often argue that the law is aimed at resettling Palestinian refugees and that the naturalization of thousands of Palestinian men and children would tip Lebanon’s delicate sectarian balance in favor of Sunni Muslims, the religion of the majority of the country’s 400,000 Palestinian refugees.
But the study has proven the argument to be out of touch with the facts: slightly more Lebanese women are married to Syrians than Palestinians (22 percent compared to 21.7 percent), with those married to other Arabs or foreigners forming the majority (56.3 percent). “The Palestinians or the Syrians are not from one [religious] denomination, just like the Lebanese,” the study said. Looking at national figures shows that only two percent of all Lebanese women are married to Palestinians.
In addition, Lebanon’s nationality was promulgated during the French Mandate in 1925, some 23 years before Palestinian refugees first arrived in the country. “This proves that the law is discriminatory in its origin and has nothing to do with the concerns and fears of Palestinians [re]settlement.”
Those affected by the law, regardless of their socio-economic situations, encounter problems in inheritance, obtaining work, receiving health care and education, as well as significant psychological trauma, the study showed. A documentary shown by CFUWI highlighted the problems many women and their families faced. One woman said the law has tested her patriotism to the limits, asking “why should I love Lebanon when Lebanon doesn’t love me back?”
Ultimately, said Marta Ruedas, UNDP resident representative, the issue of nationality rights is a contradiction of the Lebanese Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law. “This disparity is a fundamental violation of a woman’s rights: of her right to choose, her right to dignity, and, above all, of her right to equality with men,” she said.
“This demand for change not only conforms to international conventions, as enshrined in the [1948 Universal Declaration] of Human Rights, which is something that Lebanon not only signed but co-authored, but also the Lebanese Constitution … The facts do not support what this law enshrines,” Ruedas added.
CFUWI’s study also provides the full text of a draft law which would see equality between the genders in granting nationality rights. The proposed document was submitted to Parliament in May 2009, but has not met with much support. Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud, who has pioneered the issue of gender equality in government, said Lebanese officials were failing their constituents.
“Parliamentarians have a duty to listen to the people, not to close the door,” said Baroud. “I don’t see anyone taking up this issue courageously.”
To coincide with the study’s release, CFUWI announced the launch on a media campaign to highlight the injustice of Lebanon’s current nationality law. It will be running adverts featuring a hand-cuffed baby in all major newspapers and on television channels. Commenting on the choice of a handcuffed baby, Baroud questioned who it was that was really shackled: “Is it the baby or it is us who are inheriting” and perpetuating such outdated laws?