to travel abroad and a foreign woman married to a Saudi Arabian man needs permission from her husband to travel unless both partners sign a prenuptial agreement permitting the non-Saudi Arabian wife to travel without the husband’s permission. Government entities and male family members can ‘blacklist’ women and minor children, prohibiting their travel.35 Sometimes, patriarchal customs and practices create barriers to women’s ability to access and use passports. For example, in the United Arab Emirates, custom allows a husband to prevent his wife, minor children, and adult unmarried daughters from leaving the country, by taking custody of their passports.36 c) Barriers to birth registration and certification Gender-based legal and regulatory barriers against women to birth registration and certification exist when women are not allowed to register the birth of a child or obtain a birth certificate for their child as easily as a man.37 One legal barrier faced by women is that only the father can register the birth of a child or that he is the first person in a list of people allowed to do so. In Greece, the father is legally obliged to register the child; if he is absent or impeded, this legal obligation falls on the doctor or midwife.38 In Barbados,39 Burundi,40 Fiji41, the Islamic Republic of Iran,42 and Namibia,43 a mother can legally register the newborn only when the father is dead, absent, or incapable. In The Gambia, the father is legally required to register children born within a marriage. However, if a child is born out of wedlock, the father is not required to register the birth.44 The mother is legally responsible for registering the birth of children born out of wedlock and of children born in wedlock if the father is dead or absent.45 The same rules often apply to issuing a birth certificate, for example, in the Islamic Republic of Iran.46 Perhaps the most severe restriction arises from laws that stipulate that if the father is unknown, the birth of a child cannot be registered in the civil registry, as is the case in Bhutan (UNICEF 2013). In other countries, mothers can register the birth of a child but need additional documentation, generally proof of marriage or the husband’s or another male family members’ authorization. In Bhutan, identification documents of both parents and their marriage certificate are necessary to register the birth of a child.47 In Egypt, while the father can always register the birth of a child, the mother may do so only if she provides proof of marriage.48 If she cannot prove her marital relationship, she can register the birth of her child only if she provides the testimony of a person who witnessed the birth49 (World Bank 2016a). In Greece, while the father is legally obliged to register the birth of a child, the mother needs a special mandate by a notary attorney to do so.50 In Kuwait, the original marriage contract is required to register the birth of the firstborn child and the father or paternal grandfather must go in person to collect the certificate from the relevant authority. An authorization letter or special power of attorney is needed when the father is outside the country and a letter from the prison commissioner is needed if the father is imprisoned.51 Gender-based legal differences create barriers to birth registration of children born out of wedlock if the mother alone cannot register the birth of her child. For example, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, if the parents’ marriage is not registered, both parents must appear before the civil registrar to register a child’s birth.52 In Nicaragua, a single mother can register the birth of her child alone when the father is unknown or does not recognize the child as his, but both parents need to register the birth of a child when living in a consensual union; otherwise, the child will not obtain the father’s surname. The father’s signature on the birth record is needed for paternal recognition of the child (UNICEF 2013). In Iraq and Jordan, an unmarried parent must obtain a court order to register the child.53 Discriminatory birth registration laws can trigger gender-based social stigma. For example, in Indonesia, before legislative reforms in 2014, children whose parents were unmarried or had a religious marriage, or whose father did not provide a letter of recognition to civil registry staff, were issued a birth certificate with only the mother’s name. Indonesians generally believed that a birth certificate with only the mother’s name carried a stigma, as it implies that the child was illegitimate and that this was an undesirable registration II. Gender-based legal barriers against women to identification 7