Citizenship, which is considered one of the achievements of modernity, is among the most important and fundamental human rights in the current legal system. It is the basis and source of many other rights and privileges. The recognition of citizenship as a fundamental and inalienable right in Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is indicative of the importance and prominent role of this basic right in human life. Therefore, different governments and legal systems have made efforts to prevent situations and circumstances where individuals may be left without citizenship, while considering national interests and benefits. This is because being deprived of citizenship ultimately leads to being deprived of the possibility of joining and relying on a specific legal system in order to enjoy rights, privileges, and legal protection (or, in the words of Hannah Arendt, the “right to have rights”). Based on principles, beliefs, and policies pursued by different governments, criteria have been defined and established for acquiring citizenship, the most common of which are descent (bloodline

In the next step and after about thirteen years, the “Amendment to the Law on Determination of Citizenship of Children Born to Iranian Women and Foreign Men” passed the approval of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. Despite all its shortcomings, this law is still considered a step forward, as it allows for Iranian citizenship to be acquired by children born to Iranian women and non-Iranian men upon the request of the mother (before the age of eighteen) or the individual themselves (after reaching the age of eighteen). Although complete and real elimination of discrimination will only occur when the amendment of Article 976 of the Civil Code and the addition of the phrase “or mother” to this article recognizes the primary and direct Iranian citizenship of individuals born to Iranian mothers (regardless of their father’s citizenship), this current provision is still a blessing for those who were previously in a state of uncertainty and ambiguity due to their non-Iranian father’s citizenship, and it is vital and beneficial for them.

In such a relatively reasonable situation and order, with a society looking towards the future and hopeful for improvement in citizenship laws and complete elimination of gender discrimination from this important part of legal rules (which, as mentioned at the beginning, is itself the basis and foundation for enjoying other rights, privileges, and legal protections), a number of representatives of the Islamic Consultative Assembly have presented a proposal known as the “Establishment of the National Residence Organization” which, with the sign of the current ruling regarding the children of Iranian mothers, undermines all hopes and achievements that were difficult to obtain. In Article 41 of this proposal, which was not present in the initial proposal published by the Legal Deputy of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (the initial proposal had a total of 39 articles) and it is not clear for what purposes and intentions it was added to the main proposal, it states that “the law amending the law on determining the citizenship status of children born to Iranian women and foreign men (approved in

It should be noted that amidst the fear and hope, and at the time of writing this text, news was published about the parliament’s opposition to reviewing and approving this plan within the framework of Article 85 of the Constitution (2). This news, while rejecting the danger of hasty approval of this plan, keeps the ray of hope alive that in the final review of the plan in the parliament and with the protests and warnings of human rights activists and intellectuals of society, this damaging and discriminatory decision will not come to fruition.

Notes:

1- The security background has not been defined in any of the legal texts and during the reign of this law, it could easily be used as a pretext to reject job applications.

2- The direction of representation is personal and cannot be transferred to someone else. The parliament cannot delegate the power of legislation to an individual or a group, but in necessary cases, it can delegate the power of drafting some laws to its internal commissions while observing the seventy-second principle. In this case, these laws will be implemented on a trial basis for a period determined by the parliament and their final approval will be with the parliament.