Report on Citizenship Law: Iran residence permit of the foreign father stipulated in this article. Children concerned with this article are permitted to reside in Iran prior to obtaining citizenship122.” Despite the positive aspect of the law, it was still difficult -if not impossible- for women to pass on their nationality to their children. Providing documents such as proof of the child’s birth in Iran, proof of renouncement of the child’s foreign nationality, marriage certificate, and proof of legal residency of the foreign father in the country, presented difficult eligibility requirements which excluded children born to stateless/illegal fathers or those born out of wedlock from this law. Finally, and above all, naturalisation under this law was only possible upon reaching the full age of 18 and, therefore, could not tackle the issue of childhood statelessness123. In other words, this would put the children concerned at risk of deprivation of their rights to education, health care, etc., prior to being recognised as Iranian citizens at the age of 18. In addition, this Amendment created some level of confusion for the Family Courts. In order to discuss this, it is first necessary to examine the situation of children born to Iranian women and non-Iranian men before the ratification of the Amendment. Two articles are of great importance for this examination; Art 1059 of the Civil Code which states that marriage of a female Muslim with a non-Muslim is not allowed and Article 1060 upon which the validity of the marriage of an Iranian woman with a foreign man is conditional on the prior permission from the government124. With the assumption that the conditions laid down under both Articles had been met, there would have been two possible scenarios: The nationality of the foreign husband was imposed on the Iranian woman by marriage; Or the nationality of the foreign husband was not imposed 125 . The child born in the former scenario, was granted Iranian nationality based on sub-para 4 of Art 976 as he was a child born to foreign parents, one of whom was also born in Iran126. In the latter scenario in which the mother retained her Iranian nationality, sub-para 4 was no longer applicable and, therefore, the only means for the child to acquire Iranian nationality was sub-para 5 of the Art 976. Hence, as long as the conditions under articles 1059 and 1060 were met, the child born to an Iranian mother and a foreign father could be granted the nationality by either sub-para 4 or 5127. The ratification of the 2006 Amendment resulted in confusion regarding the applicability of the appropriate law. It could be said with certainty that, in cases where an Iranian woman had acquired the foreign nationality of the husband by marriage, application of sub-para 4 of Article 976 would have been still in the best interest of the child. It was crucial, however, to determine which law was applicable in cases where an Iranian woman retained her nationality after marriage. Through the Amendment, the child could naturalise as an Iranian national, contrary to sub-para 5 which provides that the child acquires the Iranian nationality automatically. In addition, having a clean criminal record was one of the conditions under the Amendment which was not the case under sub-para 5 of Article 976. Therefore, there was still the need for a new law to clarify the ambiguity of the issue, reflected by a governmental survey 122 Princeton University, Iran Data Portal, Nationality Law, 2013, https://irandataportal.syr.edu/nationality-law. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), UN Committee on the Rights of the Child: Concluding Observations: Islamic Republic of Iran, 2016, para 46. 124 Article 1059: Marriage of a female Moslem with a non - Moslem is not allowed. Article 1060: Marriage of an Iranian woman with a foreign national is dependent, even in cases where there is no legal impediment, upon special permission of the Government. Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 23 May 1928. 125 Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 23 May 1928, Art. 987. 126 ٨٢‫ﻣﺤﻤﻮد ﺳﻠﺠﻮﻗﯽ ص‬، ‫ﺑﺎﯾﺴﺘﮫ ھﺎی ﺣﻘﻮق ﺑﯿﻦ اﻟﻤﻠﻞ ﺧﺼﻮﺻﯽ‬،١٣٨٠،. (Mahmood Saljouqi, The Rules of International Private Law, Tehran: Mizan, 2001, page 82). 127 ٨٢‫ﻣﺤﻤﻮد ﺳﻠﺠﻮﻗﯽ ص‬، ‫ﺑﺎﯾﺴﺘﮫ ھﺎی ﺣﻘﻮق ﺑﯿﻦ اﻟﻤﻠﻞ ﺧﺼﻮﺻﯽ‬،١٣٨٠،. (Mahmood Saljouqi, The Rules of International Private Law, Tehran: Mizan, 2001, page 82. 123 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/13 - © 2020 Author(s) 19