ANNEX Testimonies N (Jordan) N is Jordanian and met her Egyptian husband when he came to work in Amman. They were married in 1985 and over the next 12 years had 6 children. Because neither were educated they did not realise that the Jordanian law prevented her from passing on her nationality to her children and it never occurred to them to register their children under their father’s nationality with the Egyptian consulate. It was only when N’s husband passed away in 1997 and N had to take full responsibility for providing for her family that the issue of the nationality of her children arose. Not having benefited from an education herself, her children’s schooling was of paramount importance to N. However, she quickly found that in order for her non-national children to attend school, it would cost more than 12 times the amount than it would cost if they were Jordanian citizens. To ensure her children had the same opportunities as their Jordanian friends she took multiple jobs, often neglecting the raising of her children in the process. The same discrimination extended to every part of their lives; as a family comprised of just one national, they were only entitled to one fourth of social security entitlements available to other poor families where the children were also recognised as nationals. Her children were not entitled to national health insurance and this forced her to take risks she would not have contemplated otherwise, waiting till her children fell seriously ill before paying for expensive private medical care. Even though her son excelled in his tertiary nursing course, he has continually been denied employment because he is unable to provide prospective employers with documents attesting to his nationality. N fears for the day that she dies or is unable to work as she does not know how her children will survive. She says her children blame her for the difficulties they face, and she feels that her efforts to ensure that they received a good education have failed because they still cannot get jobs. She says: “It is not my mistake that I married a foreigner. I did not disobey my parents or the State in marrying my husband. Because of that, we all now live as though we were dead.” Zarouk (Morocco) Zarouk shared her story of how her children, though not her husband, have benefited from reform to gender discriminatory nationality laws in Morocco. Zarouk met her Iraqi husband in Syria. Together they travelled to Iraq where she became pregnant with her first child nine years ago. She travelled back to Rabat to be near her parents when she gave birth. It was when she took her new-born son to be registered, that she was told by the Moroccan authorities that she was not entitled to pass on her nationality to her son. However, when she went to the Iraqi embassy, she was told that her son was able to be registered with his father’s nationality. Zarouk returned with her son to Iraq but when the war broke out, she and her husband were forced to flee back to Morocco. Because Zarouk was also unable to transmit her nationality to her husband, he was required to purchase and annually renew an expensive work permit, just to remain with his family. Once, when he delayed renewing 4