A long-awaited amendment to the Egyptian Nationality Law is about to become a reality. Reem Leila examines the chances of children born to foreign fathers becoming Egyptian During last week's first annual National Democratic Party (NDP) conference, President Hosni Mubarak announced the government's intention to amend the Nationality Law to allow individuals born to Egyptian mothers and non-Egyptian fathers to become Egyptian citizens. As the law currently stands, the wives and children of Egyptian men are automatically granted Egyptian nationality, while Egyptian women are not able to pass their nationality on to their children. According to Yomn El-Hamaqi, head of the NDP Policy Secretariat's Women's Committee, "the committee, along with the National Council for Women (NCW), is preparing the new draft law so it can be presented to parliament during the coming session." Two weeks ago, the Interior Ministry announced that it was accepting applications from individuals who have foreign fathers and want to be Egyptian citizens. At present, the interior minister himself has the final say on whether or not the nationality will be granted to these applicants. When the applicants are less than 21 years old, the mother must submit an official request to the ministry's Immigration and Nationality Department. The application form includes detailed questions about the child's date and place of birth, original nationality, religion, and place of work. The date and place of both parents' birth must be provided, and the mother must also submit her own father's birth certificate, her identity card, and her marriage contract as part of the required paperwork. According to Adel Afifi, who heads the department, "this information helps to prove that the mother's origins are Egyptian." The required paperwork also includes the child's birth certificate, foreign passport and a photocopy of it, educational qualifications, four recent photos, and proof of a "clean" criminal record for those who are over 16. Those who are over 21 must apply for themselves. All applicants must also submit documents proving they have been residing in Egypt for at least the past 10 years. Afifi said that more than 650 people had applied for citizenship since the announcement was made two weeks ago. Fourteen-year- old Michael Aladdin Huber is one of them. His mother Malak told Al- Ahram Weekly that "getting all the necessary documentation has been a real hassle." Still, it will be worth it, Malak says, so that "my son can -- at last -- be an Egyptian citizen and be treated as such, and not be deprived of anything." In Huber's case, he was recently disqualified from an Egyptian national youth tennis championship because his father is South African. Soad Osman, a banker married to an Algerian engineer, tried to apply for her two girls. The problem, in her case, is that she has lost her deceased father's birth certificate and is having a hard time issuing a new one. "Why can't they just accept his ID instead?" Osman asked. Afifi confirmed that every document was essential to the application process. "The matter is already sensitive and difficult," he said, "so people should be more understanding. Examining those documents will take quite a while. People might not get the nationality for a year, and the documents have to be accurate." According to 1975's Law 26, anyone born in Egypt to an Egyptian mother and a father whose nationality is unknown is entitled to Egyptian citizenship. Nationality is also granted to anyone whose mother is Egyptian and whose paternity cannot be legally established, as well as anyone born in Egypt to parents with nationalities that have been revoked. "It was totally unfair to only grant the Egyptian nationality in such cases," Afifi said. Although that is soon to be amended, the new draft law will probably forbid children of foreign fathers from joining the Egyptian army and bar them from certain governmental posts. According to lawyer Mona Zulfiqar, the deputy chairperson of the NCW's legislative committee, granting Egyptian women the right to pass on their nationality to their children is in accordance with the Egyptian constitution's guarantees of equal rights for men and women. The fact that the Interior Ministry is already accepting applications "could be considered a transitional stage", Zulfiqar said. In cases where the minister refuses to grant the nationality, "the applicant will have to resort to the courts, by filing a case against the interior minister," she said. "But this is another dilemma." Meanwhile, children of Palestinian fathers and Egyptian mothers are not eligible. According to international law expert Ahmed Kamal Abul-Magd, head of the NCW's Legislative Committee, this may sound unfair. However, Arab League Decree 1547 for the year 1959 calls for the preservation of the Palestinian identity, as a way of avoiding it becoming mixed up with an Egyptian nationality, as being important for the overall Palestinian cause. Sources involved in the preparation of the draft law, however, said these cases would receive equal treatment as Egyptian citizens when it came to payment of reduced school and university fees, as well as seeking employment in government institutions. "The current situation is much better than before, said Abul-Magd. Who knows what the future might bring."
