The United Arab Emirates announced Wednesday that children of Emirati women married to foreigners could apply for citizenship once they turned 18, moving closer to giving women the same nationality rights as men. President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahayan decreed that the “children of women citizens married to foreigners should be treated as citizens,” WAM state news agency reported.
In the move, the children are to get the “right to apply for citizenship when they reach 18,” it added.
Most Arab countries link nationality to blood relation from the father’s side, disenfranchising women who face various forms of gender discrimination across the region.