One side of the story

Frances Guy, Britain’s woman in Beirut, has written about the  passing on of nationality to coincide with International Human Rights Day:

Nationality: an issue of human rights

Today, 10 December is International Human Rights Day.  The Lebanese League for Women's Rights will be demonstrating downtown.  Why?  For a change in the Nationality Law.  Think about it.  The right to pass on your nationality to your child is a basic human right.  In a world governed by states and state governments you need to have an identifiable nationality otherwise you are a paperless, stateless person without rights.  Nearly 200,000 people in Lebanon today have no nationality.  That's a lot in a country of about 4 million people.   A Lebanese woman does not have the right to pass on her nationality to her children.   That is simple discrimination and in contravention of a number of international conventions.

 On those grounds alone we should all be fighting for change.  But this position of principle hides the human facts.   Imagine the situation:  you are the child of a Lebanese mother, but a foreign father and that father has since left or died.  You were born in Lebanon. You have never lived anywhere else.   Your father can't renew your nationality anymore.  You have to re-register every year as a foreigner.  You have problems getting into school, problems getting health insurance.  Later in life, getting into university is complicated.  Some jobs are forbidden to you.  But in your heart you are Lebanese.  You don't want to live anywhere else.  You can't live anywhere else. But you are not recognised as Lebanese. You are effectively stateless.  You have no rights.  

The UNDP tried to raise a campaign for change in 2009.   In Lebanon, changes in nationality get tied up with Palestinian issues.  But the statistics show that relatively few Lebanese women marry Palestinians and Lebanese men who marry Palestinian women can pass on their nationality. 

So come on....  Let's do it. Let's change this discriminatory law.   Other Arab countries have.  Why can't Lebanon? 

 Only XY's need apply

Now, that’s all well and good. I wholeheartedly support the idea of equality between men and women. My wife would beat me if I didn’t.

But… to write a piece like the above and to not mention why the nationality law hasn’t been reformed is a little weak.

Perhaps she’s trying to avoid placing her foot in her mouth, again.

It's a man's world

So, the wife forwarded me this link.

My response to her: “It sucks to be you.”

Seriously.

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Women cannot pass on citizenship.

Women cannot leave the country if their father or husband bars them.

There are no provisions made for domestic violence.

Marital rape does not exist.

Women cannot be the aggressors in a rape case.

Women cannot conduct an ‘honour killing’. That is to say, if they kill someone to avenge a crime, for example rape, these are not counted as mitigating circumstances.

Women can be jailed for up to three years if they chose to have an abortion.

However, they will benefit from mitigating circumstances if they are having an abortion as a result of an ‘honour crime’… which directly contradicts a previous point. – According to the article, it hasn’t happened yet.

Women can be jailed for up to three years for adultery. Note, the male equivalent has to take place in the marital home and carries a sentence of 1-13 months.

If she happens to be sleeping with another woman, the potential sentence is longer (this is same for both sexes).

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There are others, but those are the stand outs to me. It also gets more complex when you add in religious law.

And to think, I thought it was 2010. Apparently not.

It’s when reading articles like this that I am profoundly thankful my wife and I are married by British law. The darker side of me also reflects upon the fact that, were my children able to hold Lebanese citizenship, my (potential) daughters might at some point be subjected to the above. And, the darker side of me, in our case, is quite grateful that the first rule exists.

Maternal matters

Over the weekend Lebanese women took to the streets to highlight the need for reform of the laws regarding citizenship. At present they can’t pass on their nationality to their husband or sprogs.

However, there is a little movement on the issue.

Good luck if you're in the 

middle of that lot

While lining the streets and making noise is all well and good, I can’t help but feel that they’ll struggle to achieve anything when it comes to nationality.

Perhaps a concerted lobbying effort might yield tangible results?

Equality, eschmolity

And now for something close to my heart.

A friend of a friend, which, let’s face it, is a degree of separation which, in Lebanon, could account for the entire population, a country in which the guy selling kaak on the street is only two steps away from the Minister of the Interior, has just been deported. He’s been working here “illegally”. He hasn’t really been illegal, he’s been wrangling with the system, they’ve been messing him around and they’ve finally lost patience.

 

Image from here.

Fine, happens every day, right? Yes, but this fella just happens to be married to a Lebanese woman. Yes, that’s why it’s close to my heart, I’m (potentially) in the same boat as this poor sod. (I'm not, I'm fully paid up.)

The situation here is complicated in its simplicity. Essentially, if you’re married to a Lebanese woman you’re not entitled to work in the country, however you can live here… which makes about as much sense as a chocolate kettle.

Fine, I hear you say, apply for citizenship. Well, I would, but Lebanese women can’t pass on their nationality. Apparently, your rights are entirely dependent on what’s between your legs. Which I'd normally be all for, but in this case is clearly a gross violation of all that's good and holy.

So, you’re shafted, unless you can find a company to sponsor you. Then, due to various legal shenanigans, the Ministry of Labour, or General Security, will hold your passport for a while, pretend to fill out the forms before returning them to you on the basis that the quality of the fool in their local shop has gone downhill recently. Obviously, if you have money, this issue mysteriously disappears.

Why does this happen? Easy. The Palestinians. The Palestinian population in Lebanon is around 400,000, which is around 10 per cent of the Lebanese population. Yes, I know Wikipedia is about as reliable as Bill Clinton’s word, but there hasn’t been a census taken since 1932 (yes, that's true), so your guess is as good as mine.

So, the Lebanese are concerned, or rather the heads of the Lebanese political parties and institutions are concerned, that significant numbers of Lebanese women have run off with Palestinian men over the years and that by granting their spouses, and therefore children, nationality would disturb the wonderful political balancing act within the country. *Pauses for breath.*

Now, it might once have been true that, of those who had married a foreigner, the majority had got hitched to a Palestinian, but that’s no longer the case. With the diaspora resulting from the Civil War, the majority of Lebanese women who’re married to foreigners have settled down with 'orrible Westerners, myself being one. The stats are out of date and need to be revised.

At the end of the day, there is no answer to this problem. There’s been talk of changing the laws relating to children, but not to spouses … which doesn’t solve the problem. At the end of the day, Lebanon has a manyana, manyana attitude toward the issue.

So, what’s to be done?

Not a lot. However, if you’d like to add your support for reform of the law, you can sign up here and join the group on the Devil’s tool that is Facebook, here. I note that the Facebook group also accepts men, which leads me to suspect they're using it to pick up women. You know, like joining the drama society when you were at school.

In any case, it’s a good job that I’ve got a sugar momma.

- TLA