Bahraini women register with the Nationality Campaign.
Photograph courtesy of the Bahrain Women's Development Association, a member of the campaign.
“The land that I grew to love, hates my babies.” This is sadly what many Bahraini women of stateless children think to themselves every single day of their lives.
Like outcasts, they feel helplessly pulled between a country they call home and their children who should be recognized as citizens but aren’t, only because they decided to marry foreigners.
Because certain clauses in Bahrain’s Nationality Law contradict the gender equality stressed in the country’s Constitution, more than 2,000 Bahraini mothers have registered with the Nationality Campaign to pressure the government to amend the law. Currently, the law only gives men the right to grant their nationality to their children at birth and to their foreign wives after five years of marriage, while husbands and children of Bahraini women remain foreigners for the rest of their lives.
Besides the obvious discrimination in the law, mothers have to struggle to secure resident permits for their family members and dread their children reaching the age of eighteen when they must either continue studying or take up jobs to avoid deportation. Meanwhile, Bahraini citizens are given priority access to education, healthcare (both of which are free for citizens) and employment opportunities.
Launched a few years back, the Nationality Campaign organizes awareness activities to engage the public in the fight to amend the law. Its members feel that there are more Bahraini women who are suffering in silence from the shame of being treated as second-class citizens or simply because they don’t know how to access help.
According to lawyer Hassan Ali Ismaeel, two amendments to the Naturalization Law, which was drafted in 1963, violate the Constitution and have put limitations on the children of Bahraini women married to foreigners. The lawyer says these children have been suffering and inconvenienced because they do not have the same citizenship rights as their peers.
More than 40 years since it was ratified – a decade before the first Constitution was implemented in 1973 – and amended twice in 1981 and 1989, the law has failed to ensure gender equality.
“The law blatantly discriminates [against] women. The children of Bahraini fathers get citizenship automatically. But those of Bahraini mothers do not,” he says.
Bahraini men can marry women of any nationality because the law grants citizenship to their wives and children and they are issued Bahraini passports. But these same services are not provided to children of Bahraini mothers and foreign fathers. The 1989 amendment took away the right of the children of Bahraini mothers and non-Bahraini fathers to obtain a passport.
Hassan points out another anomaly: illegitimate children of Bahraini women may be granted citizenship because they are considered “the children of the Kingdom.” “Then why can’t the children of Bahraini women married to ‘known’ non-Bahrainis have the same right?” wonders Ismaeel.
“The law doesn’t support equality of citizens and violates Article 18 of the Constitution which says people are equal in human dignity, and citizens are equal before the law in rights and duties. There shall be no discrimination against them on the basis of gender, origin, language, religion or creed,” Ismaeel says.
He also rejects the argument given by a section of society that it would be anti-Islamic to grant citizenship to children of Bahraini women married to foreigners. “Many scholars have supported the call for granting citizenship to these children. The passports will carry their fathers’ names anyway.”
Suhaila's four children, though born in Bahrain to a Bahraini mother,
are considered outsiders because their father is German. Photograph courtesy of Suhaila Habib Awaji.
Businesswoman Suhaila Habib Awaji is happily married to a German with four children. Suhaila’s only concern is who will take over her business if her husband and children are considered foreigners. “I have money but lack security – how can I feel safe in a state that considers my children outsiders?”
Suhaila says that it is humiliating to regularly renew her children’s visas and pay for healthcare while children of Bahraini men and foreign wives are treated as complete citizens. Though her children have German passports, she’s still fighting to get them Bahraini passports.
Suhaila is lucky in comparison to Sabah Isa Ibrahim who was abandoned by her Saudi husband when she was pregnant with her second child. Her two boys are now grown men: the eldest is 30 and the youngest is 26; both are stateless. The resulting frustration and stigma dragged her elder son into criminal activities, while the plight of the younger is worse: not only is he rejected by the only country he considers home, he is also deaf, so getting job or establishing a family are impossible dreams.
“I was very young when my husband left me to take care of my children alone; I’m tired now but I cannot rest. Who will take care of them, especially the younger one?” Sabah asks.
Sabah says that even though all efforts to get a job for her son have proved fruitless, he was denied the monthly social assistance for the disabled. “My son isn’t a Bahraini according to the system,” she explains.
Sabah fears the uncertain fate her child faces when she dies as she lives in one room at her parents’ house and depends on social assistance from the government and charity.
Heartache is what Thuraya Al Huwaqani feels. She is managing a state-run health center but fails to manage her own life. The mother of three children (ages 16-22), she got divorced from her Yemeni husband ten years back. She also suffers under the weight of her children’s uncertain futures, especially the two in college who will soon graduate and be unable to find jobs because they aren’t Bahrainis. She says that she cannot travel with her children, who have never left Bahrain, because they don’t have passports.
Thuraya is seeking psychiatric help to deal with her feelings of injustice, especially since 2000 when Bahrain started a massive naturalization of Sunni Arabs, Pakistanis and Indians at a time when many politicians stopped promoting the rights of Bahraini women to grant passports to their children. Activists have even avoided debating the rights of husbands to get Bahraini passport to avoid criticism from these politicians as naturalized husbands of Bahraini women could potentially remarry and naturalize their children from previous marriages. Opposition groups claim that the government has naturalized thousands of people to create a Sunni majority in Bahrain, which the government denies, resulting in the current unrest in Shiite-dominated villages.
The state-run Supreme Council for Women (SWC) has started offering temporary solutions, including granting visas to children at the airport and issuing longer resident permits for extended stays in the Kingdom. The SCW has been working hard to convince the government to grant one-trip passports for some children under special circumstances – to receive health treatment abroad, visit ill relatives or holy places – as well as to allow women to sponsor their husbands and children. In Bahrain, such sponsorship privileges are typically given to businessmen and companies, but granting such rights to mothers could enable them to avoid considerable legal hassles if the fathers’ companies refuse to sponsor them.
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Nizar Al Baharna, said during his opening speech at the United Nations Human Rights Council that Bahrain’s law basically regulates the issue of nationality based on the descent of a child from a Bahraini father. The minister made this statement in April when the Kingdom's human rights record was reviewed by the Council.
Until the Nationality Law is amended, these Bahraini women will continue to campaign for justice.
Photograph courtesy of the Bahrain Women's Development Association.
"To avoid the negative effect which could result from not granting nationality to the children of Bahraini mothers who are married to non-Bahrainis or the husband who is not Bahraini, a new draft law is being debated in the House of Representatives," he reported.
The Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa announced last year that he would consider granting citizenship to children of Bahraini women married to foreigners. He said giving equal citizenship to women and men was important, but granting such rights shouldn't affect national security. Shaikh Khalifa said that many countries imposed some restrictions before providing such rights to female citizens.
Though Bahrain is only one of many Arab countries that still need more time to recognize the full citizenship rights of women, efforts will continue here until the day when females and males are treated equally in all aspects of life.
In 2004 it was Egypt, in 2005 it was Tunisia and last year it was Morocco. The list will continue to grow as more countries amend their nationality laws allowing women to grant their citizenship to their children. These encouraging results could be attributed to the endless dedication of some people in the Arab world who work towards improving the living conditions of women in the region.
There are big hopes that Bahrain will be the next to join the list, bringing joy to many families who are awaiting justice.
