Hope for Women Married to Expats
By DALAL AL ALAWI
15 June 2005
Gulf Daily News: The Voice of Bahrain
FOREIGN husbands and children of Bahraini women are being urged to help fight for citizenship.
The call was made by the Bahrain Women’s Society (BWS) yesterday as it launched a nationwide campaign to collect data on women married to non-Bahrainis and push for them to gain their full citizenship rights.
The move is part of a regional campaign being launched by women societies simultaneously in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Yemen, Tunis and Jordan. Society president Dr Wajeeha Al Baharna said at present Bahraini women married to expatriates were not getting any of their basic rights. “What we want is a clear law which will give such women their entitled right to enable children and husbands get the Bahraini citizenship,” she said. “To achieve this goal, we need to gather as much information as we can on these families, their situation and obstacles they face.”
Dr Al Baharna urged women in such circumstances to contact the society and provide it with the necessary data. Statistics show there are about 1,782 children of Bahraini women who are regarded as foreigners in Bahrain, she said. “These children don’t get such rights like education, health care and ownership of land. “In order to make sure they are given what they deserve, we need the support from the country’s societies to stand together in this campaign.”
Dr Al Baharna said the participation of such societies, especially those that deal with human and women rights, is vital in the success of this initiative. “During the first phase of this campaign, we will be holding workshops and meetings with parliamentarians and lawyers on the legal gaps which prevent women from gaining their full citizenship rights,” she said. “These workshops will help us find out where we stand and what our points of strength and weakness are.”
Bahraini women married to foreigners are urged to contact the society on 17826777 or society member Eman Al Asfoor on 39609631.
Copyright (c) Gulf Daily News 2005
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