In this photo, Qatari women shop at Souq Waqif in Doha, Qatar. A number of Qatari women are aiming to raise awareness with a campaign called “Reflect Your Respect" that promotes modest clothing in the country. (AP Photo/Razan Alzayani)
CAIRO – 5 August 2017: Human Rights Watch (HRW) slammed on Friday Qatar’s new residency law as gender discrimination and inequality against women.
The Qatari cabinet had approved a draft law that will allow permanent residence for children of Qatari women married to non-Qataris, but not full nationality.
“Qatar needs to end discrimination against women and their children, but the proposal to grant the children residency and not nationality merely assigns them a second-class status”, Rothna Begum, a researcher at Human Rights Watch said.
She stated that Qatar’s residency law draft will create another generation of children with Qatari mothers who will suffer from inequality and discrimination.
HRW earlier met with ministers in Doha, urging them to amend its international law and grant full nationality to children of Qatari women, but the draft law came to disappoint all their expectations.
The draft law also stated that permanent residence will be given to expatriates who “provide outstanding services to Qatar.”
The law doesn’t specify the type of services that could be presented to be qualified to acquire a permanent residence in Qatar.
This law also raised some fears that the gas-rich country may use the new law to grant permanent residency for some wanted people, labeled as terrorists by other governments.
Ahmed Al Ananai, international relations specialist, told Egypt Today that Qatar may be trying to find a legal way to justify those wanted people’s residence inside the country.
Human Rights Watch also mentioned that Egypt is one of the Middle East and African countries that provide equal rights to women and men to confer nationality to their children.
Qatar’s relations with several Arab and Gulf states have been strained since May 24, when the Qatari state-run news agency reported Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani’s statements regarding Gulf foreign policy with Iran, which he described as “unwise.”
On June 5, 2017, several countries, including Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, severed diplomatic ties with Doha over accusations of Qatar backing and funding terrorist groups.
On June 23, 2017, the four Arab states boycotting Qatar sent Doha a list of 13 demands, including closing a Turkish airbase in Qatar.
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