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Riyadh: Aisha and Afaf Ali Ahmad, both Yemeni, hope that the implementation of the recently amended Article in the Saudi Nationality Law will bring an end to their sufferings.
In March, the Saudi cabinet endorsed amendment to Article 16 of the Naturalisation Law. The Article pertains to granting Saudi nationality to foreign women married to Saudis or foreign widow of a Saudi.
Implementation of the amended Article will come into effect later this month as the cabinet stipulates that the decision shall come into effect 90 days after being published in the official gazette.
The Saudi cabinet decision reads: "The Minister of Interior may grant Saudi nationality to a foreign woman married to a Saudi national or a foreign woman who is a widow of a Saudi if they apply for that and waive their original nationalities. The Minister of Interior may decide withdrawal of Saudi nationality if the woman's relation with her Saudi husband seized for any reason or the woman restored her original nationality or any other non Saudi nationality."
The decision stipulates that the Interior Minister may delegate his authorities in this regard to whoever official he deputises, while in the previous provision only the minister has to decide in such matters.
Aisha, who married a Saudi national 19 years ago and has five children from the marriage, said that she and her children did not get a Saudi nationality as her husband abandoned her seven years ago without official divorce. Her eldest son is 17 years old.
She told local press that her husband refuses to add her and their children in his Saudi identity card, adding that she still has her original nationality and her children are without any nationality.
Her sister Afaf, who married a Saudi national seven years ago, did not have a Saudi nationality so far. The reason, she said, was that they did not get the Saudi Interior Ministry approval for the marriage.
Approval before marriage
"When my husband applied to the Interior Ministry for granting me a Saudi nationality, the request was rejected as there is no approval from the ministry for the marriage," she noted.
"Before the marriage, we did not know that we should get the approval of the Interior Ministry. The clerk who signed our marriage contract did not tell us of the point. But when we approached the Interior Ministry asking for Saudi nationality we were told that we should have, prior to the marriage, got the approval of the ministry. We are now planning to get the approval particularly since we are having a child," she pointed out.
Several Saudi officials and lawyers told Gulf News the new amendment would help non-Saudi women married to Saudi nationals in pushing forward their procedures of getting Saudi nationalities.
Nasser Al Hanaya, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior for Civil Status, said the amendment of Article 16 of the Naturalisation Law gives great flexibility for the finalisation of the procedures of those concerned with the provisions of Article 16.
Abdullah Al Shammary, a Saudi lawyer, noted that granting of Saudi nationality has passed various developments.
"In the past the nationality was only granted by a royal order, then the authority was given to the Interior Minister only and now the new amendment makes more room for that matter by allowing the minister to delegate his capacities in his regard," he added.
Though Ali Al Suwailem, another Saudi lawyer, believes that the new amendment has no significant changes compared to the previous provision, he noted it would, no doubt, provide more flexibility to settle naturalisation cases.
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