On June 17, a Lebanese woman who was married to a foreigner won the right to pass on her nationality to her children. She is the only one as the law in Lebanon only grand this right to men. It seems that there’s still a long way to go for men and woman to be considered equal as citizens.

On June 17, a rare verdict granted a Lebanese woman the right to give her children the gift of identity. Samira from Burj Hammoud was married to an Egyptian man now deceased. Like all Lebanese women, she was not able to pass her nationality to her children. This, until the highest Mount Lebanon court issued a verdict granting her three children Lebanese citizenship. The ruling was passed based on the court’s decision that no law prohibits a Lebanese woman from passing her nationality to her underage children after their father’s death. The Jdeideh Al-Metn court, presided over by Judges John Azzi, Rana Habka, and Lamice Kazma referred to Article 7 of the Lebanese Constitution, which states that all Lebanese citizens have equal rights before the law. Karima Chebbo, Coordinator of the Nationality campaign at the Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action (CRTD.A) believes that “the court succeeded where politicians have failed”. The main aim of the campaign “My nationality is a Right for Me and My Family” which started in 2001, is to mobilize public support as well as politicians to obtain an amendment of the nationality law. Lebanon is often described as being more advanced than its Arab neighbors in matters of women’s right but upon closer examination, the country’s actually lagging: in Egypt, the law allowed women to pass citizenship to their children in 2004; in Algeria, women were granted full citizenship rights in 2005. However, under the current Lebanese law written in 1952 and amended in 1994, male citizens married to foreigners can confer their nationality to their wives and children.