Zahra Albarazi limited space to work under the rule of both Hafez and his son, the current President Bashar Assad. Firstly, it is interesting to try and understand the justification of the discrimination through statements made via United Nations mechanisms. Syria has ratified the CEDAW, which stipulates in article 9 that “States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children”. However, Syria has entered a reservation to this particular article in legislative decree No. 330 of 2002,39 for being contrary to Sharia law, without expanding or explaining these contraventions. The reservation was changed in the States Parties’ second report for the Committee on CEDAW of 2012 where it confirmed that “there is no contradiction between article 9 and Sharia law, for there is a big difference between filiation, which is established according to Sharia and attributed to the father; and nationality, which is the relationship between the individual and the State, and it is a manmade law”. 40 However, another paragraph of the report justified Syria’s reservation to article 9 “on the basis of national considerations regarding the return of Palestinian refugees and the need to preserve their identity and right of return”.41 One paragraph of the same report states that the reason for Syria’s reservation on article 9 arises from a sovereign, not discriminatory, standpoint: “considering the critical geopolitical and strategic location of Syria. In addition to being a major transit center between continents, it is also an open State that welcomes and hosts newcomers, displaced persons, those fleeing the scourge of wars and asylum seekers; consequently, many marriages occur. Therefore, the impediments of granting nationality to children of Syrian women born to a non-Syrian father arise from a sovereign, not discriminatory, standpoint.”42 This unclarity demonstrates how fragile retaining citizenship can be in Syria and how its manipulation could be used as a political tool. Aside from these unclear justifications which allow little space for analysis or advocacy, work to challenge this discrimination continued. As part of the work of women activists, reform of the nationality law to get rid of the discrimination against women has been one their main objectives. Syria has therefore witnessed regular initiatives and attempts to raise public awareness and force discussion in parliament on the issue. Back in 2004, for example, the Syrian Women’s League43 – one of the main groups that work on Syrian rights – presented a memorandum to the People’s Assembly which asked for the removal of this discrimination. As a consequence of this, it sparked political debate and was included in the agenda of Assembly sessions and submitted to the Government. However, although this was a good first step, in 2008 the Syrian parliament voted against giving women the right to pass nationality to their children. The argument presented by the authorities was that such reform would be contrary to Sharia law – law that they claimed stipulates that children’s identity derives from the father’s name and nationality. Despite this claim, the initiative has gained support from Islamic clerics in the country. Many have disputed these arguments, most predominantly the Islamic cleric Mohammed Habbash, who was also a member of the Syrian parliament. After the initial rejection, Habbash went on to request an amendment of the citizenship law and in 2009 the Syrian Women’s League, alongside the Islamic Studies Center, requested the government to look at a new idea, to allow children of non-national 39 Declarations, reservations, objections and notifications of withdrawal of reservations relating to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women access at https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/472978?ln=en. 40 Consideration of reports submitted by States Parties under article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women Second and third periodic reports of States Parties. 41 Ibid. 42 Ibid. 43 S. Zakzak, 2016, Syrian Women’s Right Pass on Citizenship To Children: An Appraisal, access at http://www.andyabihaidar.com/legal-agenda.com/en/article.php?id=3116. 14 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2021/15 © 2021 Author(s)