Colonial Legacies in Syrian Nationality Law GENDER-BASED RULES IN SYRIAN NATIONALITY LAW A The Introduction of Gender-Based Discrimination by the French Colonial Administration As mentioned in the introduction, Syrian citizenship is principally based on art 3 of the Syrian Nationality Law, which provides that ‘anyone born inside or outside the country to a Syrian Arab father … shall be considered as Syrian Arab ipso facto’. 110 This provision is the direct result of a patriarchal law introduced by the French colonial administration. 111 From August 1924 to January 1925, the French High Commissioner 112 issued a series of arrêtés 113 laying down the legal framework on the transmission and acquisition of Syrian nationality. 114 This patriarchal framework, directly inspired by French law itself, 115 established the principle of paternal jus sanguinis, 116 and made the acquisition of a woman’s nationality dependent on her husband’s. 117 France also exported the principle of ‘dependent nationality’, whereby a woman loses her nationality if she marries a foreigner. 118 Until 1973, French nationality law was based upon the principle of patria potestas — ‘power of the father’ — under which a woman was subjected to her husband’s power. 119 The introduction of this law represented a major step back for Syrian women who, under the Ottoman rule, enjoyed the right to pass on their nationality to their children on an equal basis with men. 120 This historical fact challenges colonial and Orientalist discourses that blame patriarchal laws in the Middle East on a ‘barbaric culture’ or ‘backward religion’. On the contrary, this discriminatory legislation is the pure product of so-called European civilisation, which ostensibly claims to be superior. In this regard, it must be stressed out that the principle of paternal jus sanguinis was introduced by the French colonial administration following the transposition of the 1804 French Civil Code (‘Napoleonic Code’) into Syrian law. 121 This code, 110 Syrian Nationality Law (n 2) art 3. 111 Parolin Gianluca, Citizenship in the Arab World: Kin, Religion and Nation-State (Amsterdam 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 University Press 2009); Joseph M Haddad, The Syrian Nationality (American University of Beirut 1942). The ‘French High Commissioner’ refers to the executive power during the Mandate. In this context, the word ‘arrêté’ refers to a legislation unilaterally issued by the French administration during the colonial period. Arrêté 2825 bis du 3 Août 1924 [Decree 2825 bis of 3 August 1924] 8(287) El Acima 1, 1 (State of Syria); Arrêté 16/S of 5 January 1925 (State of Syria), reproduced in Youssef S Takla, ‘Corpus juris du mandat français’ in Nadine Méouchy and Peter Sluglett (eds), The British and French Mandates in Comparative Perspectives/Les mandats français et anglais dans une perspective comparative (Brill 2003) 63, 97–98. Mida R Zantout, ‘Robbed of Citizenship: French Law Stripped Lebanese Women of Basic Rights They Freely Enjoyed under Ottoman Rule’, Daily Star (online, 7 August 2008) <https://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2008/Aug-07/50815-robbed-ofcitizenship-french-law-stripped-lebanese-women-of-basic-rights-they-freely-enjoyedunder.ashx>. Arrêté 16/S (n 114) art 1. ibid art 5: ‘the foreign woman who marries a Syrian becomes Syrian’ (tr author). Code Civil 1804, art 18 (France) (no longer in force) (‘Napoleonic Code’). Erwin Spiro, Law of Parent and Child (2nd ed, Juta & Co 1985). Law No 19 of 1869 ‘Nationality Law’ (Ottoman Empire), cited in Will Hanley ‘What Ottoman Nationality Was and Was Not’ (2016) 3(2) Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association 277. Napoleonic Code (n 118), also known as ‘Code Napoléon’ in French. 19