Citizenship rules expose double standards in Lebanon

Y parents are from Lebanon, but I have never visited it. I want to be in touch with my family’s homeland.” This is a line from a promotional website set up by the Lebanese Foreign Ministry, which aims to encourage expats of Lebanese origin to obtain citizenship.

The Foreign Ministry’s new online campaigns are targeting millions, and come after the country passed a law allowing expatriates who descend from Lebanon to be granted citizenship.

The carefully-written statements on the website attempt to camouflage the hidden sectarian message: The ads target mainly Christian Lebanese expats, in the hope their votes will come in handy in the upcoming elections.

It is a known fact that the majority of Lebanese in the diaspora, particularly in South America, are Christians. We can understand the efforts being made by President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law Gebran Bassil to attract Lebanese expats, as it is an attempt to bridge the demographic gap in Lebanon that is threatening the Christian presence.

With decades of immigration, the number of Christians has dropped so that they now do not comprise more than 36 percent of Lebanon’s population.

Yet this decline has not been reflected in the sectarian-based political quota system, which still splits the power in half between Christians and Muslims. There have reportedly been calls by some Islamic parties to bring about a political change, to reflect the current demographic situation.

It is still impossible to know the appetite among Lebanese expats to get citizenship, but a careful examination of the campaign’s Facebook page shows that there is scant enthusiasm for it. What was the Foreign Ministry expecting? This ministry is currently under the administration of Bassil, who was responsible for a series of positions that brought tensions to Lebanon’s relations with other Arab countries.

Bassil has also received negative reactions domestically over his hostile attitude toward Syrian refugees, his stance on the issue of giving Lebanese women the right to grant citizenship to their children, and many other problematic topics, particularly those involving the electoral system.

So, who are those entitled to citizenship under the program advertised by the government ads? The website says: “If you have a father or grandfather of Lebanese origins who left Lebanon without registering their children as citizens, or if you are a foreigner woman, married to a Lebanese man.”

But what about the rights of the children of Lebanese women? The website provides no mention of this.

This is a controversial issue, and one usually discussed behind closed doors. Many Lebanese married Syrians or other nationalities, and granting those husbands citizenship irks the Christian forces, the main opponents of Lebanese women having the right to pass citizenship to their children.

Sectarian and gender discrimination carried out by the Foreign Ministry is not a secret. Individuals aspiring for freedom informed by social justice and equality have no place in Lebanon yet. Diana Moukalled is a veteran journalist with extensive experience in both traditional and new media. She is also a columnist and freelance documentary producer. She can be reached on Twitter @dianamoukalled.