Lebanese women cannot pass on their nationality to their children and in the event of separation, it is the father who gains automatic custody BEIRUT, 22 July 2008 (IRIN) – Thousands of children in Lebanon are denied full access to education, healthcare and residency because they do not have Lebanese citizenship. Lebanese women cannot pass on their nationality to their children and in the event of separation, it is the father who gains automatic custody, according to Lebanese nationality law. There is a saying in Lebanon: The only woman you
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Nationality law According to a 2008 report by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Frontiers Association, the 1994 amendment allows the child of a Lebanese mother and foreign father to gain Lebanese citizenship after the child’s marriage to a Lebanese, and at least five years uninterrupted residency in the country, including one year after marriage. A more comprehensive reform to the nationality law has become mired in the political issue of the presence of tens of thousands of Syrian workers and 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Some politicians have argued that to allow Lebanese women to nationalise the children they have with non-Lebanese, such as Syrians and Palestinians, would be to shake up the delicate sectarian demographic on which the country  admin    Population Movements to Keserwan - The Khazens and The Maans |
