More REAL women issues - Citizenship
- By: Qwaider
- On:Saturday, February 02, 2008 4:30:52 PM
- In:Thoughts
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I decided that I'm going to advocate for all the women issues that I see women in my country suffer from. I'm not going to get into non-issues, but rest assured, I will try to tackle every one of these issues as best as I can, leaving an open forum to anyone who would like to add their part.
We talked about harassment and woman's right to feel safe in the workplace. But that wasn't specific to women, this issue however IS very specific and highlights one of the inequalities Jordanian and Arab women face in general. Their rights as citizens.
I don't think it's fair or logical to have any distinction between male and female rights. Citizenship comes with many rights, privileges and obligations. Any form of inequality between the sexes in these areas needs to be looked at and amended.
Take for example the issue of Jordanian women giving the citizenship to their non-Jordanian husbands or children. In my opinion, this is one of the worst indications of gender inequality in Jordan.
This specific law is as complicated as the leap year rule, it like: A year would be a leap year if it's divisible by 4, but not if it's divisible by 100 unless it's divisible by 400, but not if its divisible by 1000 ....etc. And this weird law is like that, a woman is allowed to give the citizenship to her children, but not if they're Palestinians, or from any other Arab nationality (can someone help me verify this?)
So if I get this straight, children born from a Jordanian father and just about any nationality in the world (including, Palestinian and Arab) are Jordanian citizens. While the children of a Jordanian woman married to a Palestinian man, or Egyptian, are not Jordanian, and can not get the Jordanian citizenship. Even worse, If she was married to a Sri Lankan for example (not that I have any disrespect to the Sri Lankan people) her children would be able to get the Jordanian citizenship and live as Jordanians
Does anyone else see the problem with this picture?!
I know the issue is there in other regions of the middle east and the rest of the uncivilized world, that doesn't make it right over there either.
I fail to see any reason (other than not recognizing the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with Jordanian mothers) which are as Jordanian as anyone else who lived on the soil of Jordan and would gladly give their soul and blood for this country but is still being denied citizenship.
I do understand that I started with women's rights and ended up with a socio-political issue. But that is the case usually with these issues.
Civil law should NEVER be used as a political instrument. A woman in the eyes of this law should not be considered any less of a human, this is one side of the law, that I would like to so updated! Modernized. Women are no longer the property of the tribe, can't we get it right in the 21st century?!
Memories....
The execuse that the government use is based upon the above.I personally don't believe in "nationalities" or "citizenship", but I believe in origins..After all we are all humans, right?
I quote here: The government is not ready for such a number!!
So it all comes back to the fact that it is purely politics!! The ladies of the new parliament wanted to do something about it! But we'll have to wait and see!!
It is azazing to see that u r becoming a feminist! *that's wut they call those who advocate for woman's rights in their countries!!!
peace to all...
As usual, the issue is exactly the same in Egypt by the way.
Mohanned
The fact that nationality brings you a certain level of "privileges" is what matters here. Many people are deprived of it due to many reasons. It's even harder to benefit from these people who will not have loyalty to a system that has shut them out.
Hareega
You're right my friend, but I strongly believe that we need to change these norms. We need to change MANY norms
Lostwithin
See, THIS IS EXACTLY why I think it's unfair. Civil law shouldn't be used as a political tool. It needs to be separate. It needs to cater for the needs of the society. And if we in fact have 500,000 cases. So what? What is the Jordanian government doing for the rest of the 6 million? Collect taxes? If these people are already living, breathing and sharing the same country. Wouldn't this be like trying to hide the sun with a screen!?
Kinzi
Absolutely, and we need to start finding solutions to these matters. I actually -heard- that the law has been amended to allow the Jordanian woman to give citizenship to her husband and children unless they already have an Arab citizenship and particularly not Palestinian. So a woman married to an American can very much grant him the citizenship after 10 years of marriage
Afaf
That was true before the new law. But apparently there is a move to change the law. Same is going in Saudi and Egypt by the way, As long as the father is not Palestinian
Nido
I'm not positive. But I've been hearing a lot about it recently which lead me to believe that there is a law. You might want to consult the Jordanian embassy in Washington DC for more specifics
Tololy
Thanks, I hope we can find out for sure soon. But regardless of the result, we need to all take action and protest this. Jordanian women are not any less than any Jordanian man and they should have the ability to grant citizenship to ANYONE within the same conditions applied to males. Not double, nor conditional.
Look at what happens if you marry an American citizen. She will get YOUR last name and you will get her citizenship. So surname has nothing to do with it
And EVEN if it did, so what? Isn't it about time we abolish tribalism?
'What difference does that make Ahmad?'
In islam, that is not allowed. Kids should take their father'surename. i though you know that.
But again, what difference does that make to the citizenship? Really?
1) we need to demand citizenship for Spouses and children of Jordanian women, regardless of the parent's nationality
2) These rights need to be exactly those of the Jordanian males
3) IF the government decides that there will not be dual Arab citizenship, the couple should be allowed to decide which to keep and which to let go. With the possibility of getting their citizenship back if conditions change
Anything less would be very disappointing
My brother in law is Palestinian -wasn't born in Amman and doesn't have the temporary passport the a lot of Palestinians in Jordan have- so my sister can't pass the citizenship to her kids, which I think is so unfair. She became an expatriate cause of that!