BACKGROUND NOTE ON GENDER EQUALITY, NATIONALITY LAWS AND STATELESSNESS 2019 Asia Five countries in Asia and the Pacific maintain laws that do not provide mothers equal rights as fathers to confer their nationality on their children. In Brunei Darussalam and the Islamic Republic of Iran, only fathers can confer their respective nationalities on their children in all circumstances. Recently, the Iranian Government has proposed a bill to the Parliament which will allow Iranian mothers married to foreigners to apply for Iranian nationality for their children upon their birth. The bill is awaiting Parliamentary approval. In Kiribati, children born in the country to an I-Kiribati father or mother can acquire nationality of Kiribati; however, only children born abroad to I-Kiribati fathers, not mothers, acquire the nationality of Kiribati. In Malaysia, children born in the country to either Malaysian mothers or Malaysian fathers automatically acquire Malaysian nationality. But children born to Malaysian mothers outside of Malaysia may only acquire Malaysian citizenship at the discretion of the Federal Government through registration at an overseas Malaysian consulate or at the National Registration Department in Malaysia. In Nepal, children born to Nepalese fathers acquire Nepalese citizenship in all circumstances. Children born in Nepal to Nepali mothers and foreign citizen fathers can apply to acquire citizenship through naturalization, provided they have permanent domicile in Nepal and have not acquired the foreign citizenship of their fathers; to date, however, there are no known cases of children acquiring citizenship through this naturalization process. Americas Two States in the Caribbean do not allow women to confer nationality on their children on the same terms as fathers. In The Bahamas, children born in the country to either a Bahamian father or mother acquire Bahamian nationality; however, only children born abroad to Bahamian fathers, not mothers, can acquire Bahamian nationality. Also, married women do not have equal rights to confer nationality on adopted children. An unmarried Bahamian father is denied the right to confer his nationality on his children, a right reserved for unmarried mothers. The same applies in Barbados, where children born in Barbados to either Barbadian mothers or fathers acquire Barbadian nationality, but Barbadian mothers cannot confer nationality on their children born abroad, whereas Barbadian fathers can. 10 UNHCR | 8 March 2019