A Lebanese woman calls for equal citizenship rights during a protest in Beirut. The campaign for equal citizenship rights for women is being neglected by politicians, according to the coordinator of the campaign. Lina Abou-Habib says a member of the ministerial committee tasked with debating the issue has openly admitted the establishment of the panel was merely a placatory move.
As the law stands, if a woman marries a non-Lebanese citizen, they cannot pass on their Lebanese nationality, making it difficult for their children to gain state benefits such as education and health care.
The campaigners handed a draft law on citizenship to Parliament last July, and earlier this year received “a positive reaction from Prime Minister Najib Mikati.”
Then in March, and for the first time in the history of the campaign, the issue was discussed in Cabinet, but according to Abou-Habib, executive director of CRTD-A, a regional gender-research non-governmental organization based in Beirut, and chair of the campaign, the loudest voices were those of the critics.
Abou-Habib says that according to sourcesthe strongest objections to equal citizenship came from Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement bloc in Cabinet. “This is where the FPM intersects with their arch enemies the Lebanese Forces in sexism and racism and xenophobia.”
Following the Cabinet meeting, Mikati tasked a ministerial committee with continuing to debate the issue. Headed by deputy premier Samir Mouqbel, the committee also includes Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi. Abou-Habib questions the latter’s inclusion.
“He had already made public statements against this and against other reforms related to the rights of women: [he was] very critical, or sarcastic on the issue of equality,” Abou-Habib says.
The justice minister in January stated that full citizenship rights for women would be “dangerous” and “might hurt the balance among the Lebanese sects and might negatively affect coexistence in the country.”
The issue of naturalization of Palestinian men married to Lebanese women has long been used by critics of equal citizenship rights as a key objection.
While the step of creating a ministerial committee was important in that the issue of equal citizenship rights was “put down on paper somewhere,” campaigners were disappointed in the lack of accountability.
“There was no timeline on what the committee was expected to do, there were no details on what the process would look like, and on which principles [committee members] would be making proposals. And there was no room for consultation with civil society,” Abou-Habib says.
A sit-in had been organized by nationality campaigners to demand answers to these questions, but no answers were provided.
After unsuccessfully trying to meet with ministerial members of the committee, a chance meeting with one of the members on an airplane provided Abou-Habib with the depressing reality of the situation. He told her explicitly that “the committee will not meet and has no intention to meet.”
“It’s hilarious, on the one hand they pretend to be taking things seriously, and on the other hand you meet one face to face and they tell you this is just bullshit and nothing is going to happen.”
The minister also said that, regardless of which coalition was in power, the issue would not be settled easily.
“In any case, no matter who is the political force in power, whether March 14 or March 8, they are going to give due consideration to the concerns of their Christian allies and it so happens that their Christian allies are against equal citizenship,” Abou-Habib recalls she was told, due to concerns over “demographics.”
Abou-Habib has also since discovered the National Commission for Lebanese Women, presided over by first lady Wafaa Sleiman and a semigovernmental body, had also simultaneously presented a draft law on equal citizenship to Parliament.
“Even if we may not agree with some of their suggestions ... this is the first time they have been really consistent in pursuing this issue,” she says.
The National Commission’s proposal focuses solely on passing citizenship onto the children of Lebanese mothers, and does not make reference to spouses, and in the cases of Palestinian fathers, “they make special provisions, so Palestinians of Lebanese mothers will have residency permits until the age of 18, and at that age they will apply for citizenship and the case will be heard in court.”
However it transpires that the proposal which is actually on the agenda, whether or not it will be discussed any time soon, is one written by former Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud and which excludes both spouses and all Palestinian children of Lebanese mothers from citizenship.
In terms of the continued failure of the government to address such issues of social welfare, Abou-Habib believes the current security climate in Lebanon, increasingly uneasy due to events in Syria, is providing the perfect excuse for ministers to ignore these pressing issues.
In the midst of the Arab Spring engulfing the region, what’s even more worrying, she adds, is that “they don’t see the links between social upheaval and insecurity and people’s rights and entitlements and dignity.”
In Lebanon, she adds, the questions of “What is a nation, what are citizens, what are their rights?” are imperative right now.