Citizenship for Kids

Monday, 22 January 2007
By Sabria S Jawhar
The Saudi Gazette

After a long struggle women in Morocco have won the right to pass citizenship on to their children from non-national husbands by birth. With the passing of that law, Morocco has put an end to the suffering of thousands of children of non-Moroccan fathers and joined most of the Arab countries, including Egypt, that have already passed similar laws.
By contrast, there are still women in Saudi Arabia who are struggling to keep their marriages to Saudi nationals valid especially in those cases where the marriage does not conform to the interests of the woman’s male relatives.
On Saturday, Okaz, the Arabic-language daily newspaper, published a report of a new marriage case that was nullified by a court in Riyadh. Unlike the previous cases, where the woman’s male guardian invalidated the marriage, this time the tribal chief did. He used the same excuse of “inferior blood” to obtain a court verdict. The couple had been married for years and had two children. They had married after receiving permission of her adult brother as well, according to the paper.
Several months ago, the media also reported a similar case where a couple was divorced, not because they wanted to, but because the wife’s brothers believed the husband’s blood was inferior to theirs.
Both divorces were granted by Saudi judges, adding insult to Saudi women who are suffering form lack of full citizenship rights when it comes to marriage, divorce and passing citizenship to their children from a non-Saudi husband.
Comparing the Saudi women’s situation to that of the Moroccan or even the Egyptian ones, I felt sad that such acts are taking place in a country that was among the first Arab countries to sign the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and above all, is the cradle of Islam.
King Abdullah said on more than one occasion that there should be no differences or discrimination among the Kingdom’s different regions and between men and women when it comes to citizenship. However, we still see regulations and practices that impose restrictions on women and make them a subject to injustice and discrimination inside the Saudi courts.
Saudi women should be given the right to choose their husbands and to pass the citizenship to their non-Saudi children by birth in equality with their male counterparts.
It’s true that the Saudi law allows the children of a Saudi woman from a non-Saudi husband to obtain citizenship when they reach the age of maturity of 18 years, and after spending at least five years in the country. Yet fulfilling those conditions does not guarantee the citizenship and half-Saudi children are still treated in many places as foreigners.
For instance, the mother still must pay an annual amount of SR 1,000 fee in order to renew the residency permit of her children. In the case of divorce or the father’s death, the Saudi mother is not permitted to sponsor her male children when they reach adulthood unless she has a commercial license under which they are registered as employees at her company. Otherwise, she must look for a sponsor, which makes her a subject to blackmailing and hurt feelings of the children who feel that they are unwanted in the only country they consider as home.
Having the merits of being exposed to at least two cultures give children a plus point since they have an international background and Saudi patriotism. People characterize the nation language as one’s mother tongue. The same thing can be said about patriotism that is usually passed from the mother to her children.
The question now is: will we save our assets and pass the same law as that of Morocco or should we lose those children who might get the citizenship one day when they come back as doctors and scientists but with no patriotism for the country that denied them citizenship when they were little kids.