Interview with Lina Abou-Habib, Director of CRTD-A, on Women's Right to Nationality

Interview with Lina Abou-Habib, Director of Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action (CRTD-A), March 4, 2006

By Anna Workman, Program Associate, WLP

Why is the right to nationality an important issue for women in the Middle East and North Africa?

Essentially because nationality is a case in point of how citizenship in this region is gendered. One way of actually being a citizen is being a national of a particular country, so whether or not you are a national will determine very much whether you have the right to representation, whether you have the right to social entitlements, whether you're a full citizen or not. So when the laws in most countries in the Middle East and North Africa and Gulf regions say that a citizen is someone born of a father of that country only, this clearly says that the state considers that only men are real citizens and hence only men can pass on their citizenship to their offspring.

How did the campaign for Arab Women's Right to Nationality first get started?

It started from a group of women starting to think about what citizenship meant in the context of the Arab region. Many organizations are working on the issue of the personal status code, of family law. We thought that nationality was very critical for a number of reasons. First of all, the issue applies to most of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Second, not much work has been done around it. Third, women were the silent victims of being denied the right to nationality. And fourth, being denied the right to nationality directly meant being denied social, economic and political rights.

For these reasons, we decided to do something about this on two levels. First, on the national level in each country. Each state has been very creative in putting forward arguments for why women can't pass on their nationality, so we felt the need to work locally on the specific challenges confronting women in each state. Second, we felt there was a lot to gain by working on this issue regionally.

Who are the main organizations involved in the campaign and how long have you been working together on this issue?

In Bahrain, we are working with our colleagues from the Bahrain Women's Society. In Egypt, we are working with the Forum for Women in Development. In Syria, the Syrian Women's League. In Algeria, Centre d'Information et de Documentation sur les Droits de l'Enfant et de la Femme. In Morocco, the Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc. In Jordan, the Jordanian National Commission for Women.  And in Lebanon, it's our organization the Collective for Research and Training on Development Action.

We have been working on the issue of nationality since the end of 2001. When we first identified this as a priority issue we thought we could launch a campaign immediately. As we began work on the issue we realized we didn't have the elements for the campaign - we needed much more data, and to really develop an understanding of the linkage between gender, nationality and citizenship. So we spent two years doing the research, which is available online and we spent a great deal of time talking to women married to non-nationals and learning from them what it means to be denied the right to nationality, what it means on a daily basis, what it means administratively, what it means in terms of how your social entitlements are undermined, and what it means to feel like a second-class citizen.

What are the main goals of the campaign?

The main goal is the reform of the current nationality laws in the Arab region to enable women to pass on their nationality to spouses and children.

However, we have seen that in countries where the law has been reformed to some extent, like in Egypt, the problem hasn't been resolved yet because changing the law is just the first step. We have seen that reform of the law could either be partial, poorly interpreted, or selectively implemented. So there's a whole issue of making sure that the law reform is not partial, but is accessible to all women, and that there are mechanisms for implementation.

What activities do you have planned at the regional level for the next year?

At the regional level, we want to focus on information and communication on the issue of nationality. There is a lot of misinformation and miscommunication because, unfortunately, most states have done their best to link women's right to nationality to political argumentation. For example, states claim that granting women the right to nationality will disturb the social demographic, leading to overpopulation or civil unrest. We are spending a lot of time with friends in the media, with sister organizations, demystifying the issue of citizenship.

We are also building alliances with NGOs and, talking with parliamentarians, particularly women parliamentarians. Because we want to link this issue to the broader citizenship issue we will also be working on other citizenship issues in addition to nationality, to develop the linkages between them, and broaden the solidarity and support for the campaign.

What is the main contribution of a regional campaign?

The regional aspect of the campaign undermines the arguments against granting nationality to women at the national level. It demonstrates that the real issue is patriarchy and a male vision of citizenship, rather than all the silly political arguments that are being made when we demand women's right to nationality.

In addition, it's the solidarity between women's organizations and the linkages to broader citizenship issues in the Arab region.

What progress had the campaign made so far?

There have been two major changes. In Egypt the law has changed, allowing women to pass on their nationality to their children only, not their spouses. And we've been doing aggressive monitoring on how the law has been implemented and we're finding that it has been selectively implemented and that civil servants are thoroughly excluding Sudanese and Palestinians and we're working on that. We're ‘naming and shaming' the government over these practices and we have already started taking test cases to court for women who are being refused even the application to apply for nationality for their children. Even though women are being threatened and told that they will not be given nationality for their children, we are supporting them to take their cases to court.

In Algeria, the law has been changed in a much more progressive way, allowing women to pass on their nationality to their children and spouses and we're using our learning from the monitoring in Egypt to do the same kind of monitoring in Algeria.

In the other countries, such as Lebanon, the campaign has generated a lot of internal debate, both for and against. People want to know more, so on this front it has been very successful.

What is the current status of the debate over nationality law in Lebanon?

Lebanon is the most difficult country in this whole campaign. First of all because amongst the politicians and the policymakers there is very little interest in citizenship issues or in issues related to women and gender equality. Plus, there is an awful myth that giving women the right to nationality is either going to facilitate the permanent ‘implantation' of Palestinian refugees, which we know is not the case, it's just a myth, or it's going to disturb the social demographic balance in the country, which is also a myth. It's a way of blaming women for any wrongdoing which might occur.

What strategies are you using to create change at the national level in Lebanon?

We are mobilizing women married to non-nationals and we are working with them, providing legal aid, so that they can address the problem through a legal structure with NGO support. We will start taking test cases to court on the basis that nationality law violates the spirit of the constitution, which is based on equality between women and men, between all citizens.

We have set up a local network with most of the women NGOs to build a broader support base for the campaign. And we've just finished drafting a legal proposal which we're starting to circulate to MPs, so we're doing a lot of individual lobbying with parliamentarians, and we're doing as much pubic communication work as possible.

Is there a lot of public support for this campaign in Lebanon?

The issue is much more visible than it used to be. It was a completely invisible issue. What we're trying to do is stir debate around it. We have been going to universities to talk to young people, we've been going to the private sector, and we're finding a lot of support there. And we're finding more and more women married to non-nationals interested in joining the campaign.

What actions can people take to support this campaign?

Lots of things - they can write to the embassies of the campaign countries in their home countries. They can urge the governments in the campaign countries to lift the reservations on CEDAW, particularly article 9 (2), which addresses nationality. They can circulate human interest stories and information on the issue. They can support the campaign financially by donating money towards the legal aid that we are providing to enable women to access justice. And if they know of women married to non-nationals in the region, they can direct them to us for support and assistance.