New Legislative Improvements in Reducing Statelessness of Children Born of Iranian Women’s Transnational Marriages: Two Steps Forward, One Step Backward

Abstract

Iran has hosted a large number of immigrants from its neighbouring countries, especially Afghanistan and Iraq, due to its geopolitical climate in recent decades. Unsurprisingly, a growing number of marriages occurred between Iranian women and these immigrants. Security authorities resisted the naturalisation of children born in such transnational families. All these socio-political phenomena led to the catastrophic situation of statelessness for a large group of children. The Iranian Parliament has dealt with this issue by using a trial-and-error approach for more than two decades. The first step, which was taken by Majlis in 2006, through the Act on the Nationality of the Children Born of Marriages between Iranian Women and Foreign Husbands, failed to achieve its predefined objectives. Therefore, the Parliament took a second step by passing an amendment to this act, which shows the Iranian legislators’ intention for reducing statelessness. This study aims to examine the extent to which the endeavour of the Iranian Parliament has been successful.