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Lebanese women confer their nationality only when the father in “unknown”

3-4-2019

In its issue of today, Al Akhbar newspaper wrote about granting single Lebanese mothers the right to pass their nationality to their children, backed with the recent circular requiring dropping ‘illegitimate child’ from personal status registries (https://bit.ly/2FJMrj8). Despite the positive inclinations of similar circulars, yet they substantiate discrimination among Lebanese citizens, especially when they restrict the right of Lebanese mothers to grant nationality to their children in one case only: that is when the father is unknown. On the subject, the head of the personal status department in Mount Lebanon, Madona Maria Lahud, pointed out that the Lebanese mother can register her newborn on her name if she gave birth inside or outside Lebanon and was not in a marital relationship, provided the father is unknown. Lahud further explained, that when the mother applies to the registry, the ISF and General Security shall make the necessary investigations to prove she is not in serious relationship with anyone and that she is completely unaware of the identity of the father. Lahud went on to say, that if the father turns out to be Lebanese, the newborn is registered after him if he acknowledges his paternity, otherwise the child is registered after his mother. Scores of Lebanese women, according to Lahud, have registered their children in their names after ensuring there is no sidestepping of the law, noting that Lebanese women married to non-Lebanese can play around with the law in this regard. For her part, lawyer and activist Nayla Geagea regretted that the Lebanese mother can give nationality to her child only if his father was unknown, stating that such conditions confirm again the patriarchal nature of the nationality and personal status laws.(Al Akhbar, April 3, 2019)

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