Claiming Equal Citizenship

Comment by nadodi

27 September 2006 @ 11:47 pm

I am from India but I had never given citizenship any thought. So, thank you for making me think and go googling all over to find this information.

Here are my responses to the survey:

1 Men — Yes, Women — Yes.
2 Men — Yes, Women — Yes.
3 Men — Yes, Women — Yes.

Reference Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_nationality_law

Some more research is needed to find out if this works in reality also, especially, when it comes to large refugee populations from Tibet or Sri Lanka.

Comment by Vivian Ronay

4 October 2006 @ 11:13 am

I can’t seem to find any contact info on the site. I am a photographer who has done some long term work in the region, in particular, in Jordan but also in Oman, Kuwait, Egyptm Syria, Jerusalem and Yemen. I am based in Washington DC and would be happy to provide excellent images when someone from your org is in town. I also would be most interested in working for you in the region. If enough women spoke English (I am embarrassed to say I know no Arabic) I would be delighted to hold a photography workshop for women interested in editorial photography skills plus some general journatistic basics for developing these their insights as to how photography is handled for editorial purposes. I’d be happy to give references from Jordan. Please contact me. viv@vivianronay.com

Comment by Ayo Obe

4 October 2006 @ 1:32 pm

Answers to the questions:

Question 1: Men - Yes: Women - Yes
Question 2: Men - Yes: Women - Yes (but see comments)
Question 3: Men - Yes: Women - Yes

The answer to Question 2 for women is in law yes, since when the 1999 Nigerian Constitution was promulgated and women complained about the gender-insensitive language, we were told that the Interpretation Act, whereby ‘the masculine includes the feminine and the feminine includes the masculine’ applies. So the language was all ‘he, him, his’ throughout. Until section 26, which allows people to apply to the President for registration as a Nigerian citizen, and then specifies that ‘this section shall apply to any woman who is or has been married to a citizen of Nigeria’. (There’s another section which specifies that ‘any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age’ but hardly anywhere else does the Constitution refer to women in particular.)

Elsewhere, the Constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds, amongst others, of gender. So between this and the Interpretation Act, Nigerian women have seized on this to insist that section 26 allows them to have their foreign husbands registered as Nigerian citizens since ‘the masculine includes the feminine and vice versa’ … For the most part, immigration authorities have accepted applications for registration by foreign husbands, but there are some cases cuffently in court, where this has been denied. Given the language of the Constitution, there ought not to be any real question that women can confer citizenship on foreign spouses, but you can see why I say it’s a qualified yes.

Comment by diah

6 October 2006 @ 6:28 pm

ANSWER TO QUESTION 1
MENS-YES WOMANS-YES

ANSWER TO QUESTION 2
MENS-NO WOMANS-NO

ANSWER TO QUESTION 3
MENS-YES WOMANS-YES( RECENT LAW,PUBLISHED JUST
IN THE END OF 2005,FOR WOMANS)
BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT,STILL TO BE DONE ,IF FOR EXEMPLE I WANT TO LIVE IN ALGERIA WITH MY PARENTS ,MY HUSBAND CAN NOT BECAUSE HE CAN NOT HAVE THE RESIDENCY OR THE NATIONALITY,IS A BIG HEADECH ONLY TO ASK FOR RESIDENCY,EVERY WHERE YOU ASK YOU GET A DOOR CLOSED IN YOUR FACE. I HOPE ONE DAY THEY WILL HAVE THE MERCY FOR THE ALGERIAN WOMAN WHO IS MARRIED WITH AN DIFFERENT NATIONALITY.THANKS.

Comment by Hosi Karzai

10 October 2006 @ 8:59 pm

I am originally from Afghanistan and am so glad that these surveys are taking place. Hope to see further findings as a result where it will benefit our society.

Here are my responses to the survey:

1 Men — Yes, Women — Yes. (Since 2001)
2 Men — Yes, Women — No.
3 Men — Yes, Women — Yes.

Comment by Milagros Ruiz

11 October 2006 @ 12:33 pm

Here are the laws in the case of Peru. It was interesting to find out that citizenship laws do not discriminate between men and women.

1 Men - Yes, Women - Yes
2 Men -Yes, Women - Yes
3 Men - Yes, Women - Yes

Spouses of both men and women may acquire Peruvian nationality after 2 years of marriage & domicile in Peru. A constitutional amendment from 1993 explicitly states that spouses who are nationals of Ibero-American countries (Spain, Portugal, Central and South America) do not lose their nationality upon acquiring Peruvian citizenship. So in my case, if I married someone from Mexico, I can pass on my nationality to him and he would also maintain his own original nationality.

Children of both men and women can pass citizenship to children born outside Peru by registering them at an Embassy or consulate before the child is 18 (per the Constitution passed in 1996). Children born overseas to Peruvian parents aged 18 or over can acquire nationality by petitioning to the Directorate of Naturalizations and Immigration, so long as they are residents of Peru at the time of petition.

Another interesting law is that infants or minors who are orphaned or abandoned without a blood tie to a Peruvian national are automatically given citizenship.

My sources are the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Relations and the Peruvian Directorate of Naturalizations and Migration.

Comment by Jill on behalf of Association des Femmes Chefs de Famille, Mauritania

3 November 2006 @ 5:13 pm

Mauritanian NGO, Association des Femmes Chefs de Famille, recently launched a campaign for equal citizenship rights for men and women.

Here are their answers to the survey for men and women in Mauritania:
1 Men — Yes, Women — Yes.
2 Men — Yes, Women — No.
3 Men — Yes, Women — Only if the child is born in Mauritania. If he/she is born on foreign soil, the child must petition to become Mauritanian.

Comment by Christina

6 November 2006 @ 3:37 pm

I am an American woman who is planning on marrying a Jamaican man.
In the USA, women and men can retain their nationality when they marry a non-national, and both sexes can pass along their nationality to their husbands as well as to their children.

1 Men - Yes, Women - Yes
2 Men - Yes, Women - Yes
3 Men - Yes, Women - Yes

Comment by Megan A.

17 December 2006 @ 2:57 pm

I am an Italian citizen.

1. Can he/she retain the nationality of origin?
Men — Yes
Women — Yes

2. Can he/she transfer nationality to the non-national spouse?
Men — Yes
Women — Yes
(I think that the spouse of an Italian citizen can apply for citizenship after 1 year if the couple resides in Italy and 3 years if they reside outside of Italy.)

3. Can he/she pass nationality along to children?
Men — Yes
Women — Yes (I believe that it has been since around 1948 that Italian women have been able to pass on nationality to children.)

Comment by Zinat Ara

18 December 2006 @ 5:13 pm

I am a Bangladeshi citizen.

1. Can he/she retain the nationality of origin?
Men — Yes
Women — Yes

2. Can he/she transfer nationality to the non-national spouse?
Men — Yes
Women — No
(The citizenship law was developed 25-30 years ago. During that time only Bangladeshi boys used to go to foreign countries for higher studies and eventually married to foreign nationals. The authority did not think that some day the girls will be marrying foreign nationals)

3. Can he/she pass nationality along to children?
Men — Yes
Women — No (Only if the children are born in Bangladesh then they automatically receive the nationality otherwise no.)

I married to a German and we lived in Bangladesh for 3 years with his work visa.Last year we immigrated to USA. In Bangladesh, there are a number of women organizations invloved with citizenship rights movement.I hope oneday the equal citizenship rights will be ensured.

Comment by Nazneen Shifa

28 January 2007 @ 12:38 am

Equal citizenship right is a very basic right for women. But truly speaking I was not much serious thinker on the issue. In Bangladesh existing citizen right is very discriminatory towards women.
Question 1: Men — Yes, Women — Yes
Question 2: Men — Yes, Women — No
Question 3: Men — Yes, Women — No (Only if the children are born in Bangladesh then they automatically receive the nationality otherwise no.)

Comment by Shahid Imtiaz Satti

27 October 2007 @ 11:53 am

I think that women should also given equal rights in nationality like her children to prevent her from being homeless.