Report on Citizenship Law Iran Eliyeh Delavari1 1. Introduction In Middle Eastern countries, gender inequality has long been an issue. Gender discrimination has persisted in status, power, and access to resources and opportunities2. It has also persisted in various fields of law including nationality law. Borrowing from the words of Suad Joseph, gender citizenship issues in Middle East have originated from the emphasis on the family as a unit, politically, and privileging men over women within families, legally. Joseph also argues that the establishment of religious communities and the legal power and authority of “religious leaders over their members”3 is one cause behind the emergence of gender discrimination in the region. The influence of Islamic law or Sharia on the legal codes such as personal status laws (the codes that regulate matters related to personal affairs of individuals such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and child custody) in most countries in the region is the result of the formal incorporation of religious communities into judiciary communities 4 . Additionally, gender disparity in the region is not only limited to the laws but also the manner in which the laws are implemented. What the law provides in principle and what women undergo is different5. Iran as one of the countries in the region is no exception. The 1979 Iranian Constitution provides for the equality between men and women in enjoying all rights6. Besides, it stresses that “Iranian citizenship is the indisputable right of every Iranian.” 7 Yet, the terms and conditions under Iranian nationality law privilege men. Iranian nationality law 8 confers nationality through both principles of ius soli and ius sanguinis, and they both put women at a disadvantage. Children born to Iranian fathers always are granted Iranian nationality regardless of whether they are born inside or outside the country; but for decades the Iranian nationality law prevented women form passing on their nationality to their children. This was, however, changed in 2019. After a great deal of global pressure from women’s advocates and both Iranian 1 PhD Candidate | Citizenship and Statelessness in Iran. Department of Private Law, Maastricht University Email: eliyeh.delavari@maastrichtuniversity.nl 2 Suad Joseph, ‘Gendering Citizenship in the Middle East’, in: Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East, ed. Suad Joseph, 2000, 3-30, page 3. 3 Suad Joseph, Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East || Gender and Citizenship in Middle Eastern States, Middle East Report Journal, 1996 / 04-03 Iss. 198, page 6. 4 Suad Joseph, Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East || Gender and Citizenship in Middle Eastern States, Middle East Report Journal, 1996 / 04-03 Iss. 198, page 7. 5 Suad Joseph, Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East || Gender and Citizenship in Middle Eastern States, Middle East Report Journal, 1996 / 04-03 Iss. 198, page 6. See also: Suad Joseph, ‘Gendering Citizenship in the Middle East’, in: Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East, ed. Suad Joseph, 2000, 3-30, page 18. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Women in Public Life; Middle East, 2017, 292-278, page 248. 6 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 24 October 1979, Art.20; Available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b56710.html. 7 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 24 October 1979, Art.41. 8 Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 23 May 1928, articles 976-991. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/13 - © 2020 Author(s) 1