CAROLINE BAZZI

Beirut- Many Lebanese women and their children joined a protest demanding the Lebanese law be amended to allow women married to foreigners to pass their nationality to their children. Gathering in front of the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanese women and their children staged a sit-in there. They demanded the amendment of the nationality law to ensure that children and spouses of Lebanese women have the same right to citizenship as those of Lebanese men.

They remembered the promises

Maryam Al-Dhahabi, the media and communications officer of the “My nationality, a right for me and my family” campaign, spoke to NuJINHA about the protest. “We wanted to remind everyone about the issue of Lebanese women married to foreigners. This issue should have been solved a long time ago. However, the nationality law has not been amended until now. We received many promises, but so far, no one has fulfilled their promise. Through this sit-in, we wanted to remind the new MPs, who announced their support for Lebanese women’s right to grant citizenship to their children; to remind them of the promises they made before the elections. The Lebanese women married to foreigners have the right to grant citizenship to their families and children,” she told us.

She demands the rights of herself and her children

Amal Yassin is married to a foreigner and has three children. Speaking about why she joined the sit-in, she said, “I am here to demand the rights of my children because I have the right to pass my nationality to my children.”

Ahlam Abu Saada Radwan, who is the daughter of a foreign father and a Lebanese mother, is married to a foreigner. She demands to obtain the nationality of her mother and pass her nationality to her children. She told us that she has faced many challenges because she does not have Lebanese citizenship.

“Citizenship is the right of my children”

Ghania Shmait, a Lebanese woman married to a Syrian man, explained that her children were born in Lebanon, in private Lebanese hospitals and studied in private schools. She also demands that Lebanon grants citizenship to her children. “Citizenship is the right of my children. The rights granted to men married to foreign women should be granted to women married to foreign men,” she said.