" Dear SheBlogsLebanon editorial team,I'm a lebanese woman married to an italian man, i have 2 children. every time we go to lebanon to visit my family I have to stand in line for at least 20 minutes if not more especially in summer time (tourists season)to get the visa for my husband and children. as a lebanese citizen, i was able to apply for the italian citizenship 6 months after my marriage and i received the italian passport 5 years later. if i want to get a residence permit for my children and my husband we would have to go through all the headaches of the lebanese bureaucracy and pay.my children who were born in Lebanon got automatically the italian citizenship but not the lebanese.i understand that being a lebanese is very hard at the moment.
every step we make outside lebanon we need a visa. having said that i have to admit i'm very proud to be a lebanese and i'm raising my children to be proud lebanese as well but how can i when they don't even belong there legally? at the moment we live in Bahrain, my kids go to the British school. now the schools here have a very strict policy abt learning arabic. if a child does not have an arabic passport, he cannot take arabic lessons. this means one or both parents have to be arabs.my kids speak fluent arabic so i had to go and meet the principal and try to explain to him that i can't give my children the lebanese passport for politicl reasons. after months of arguing i finally succeeded to get them in arabic classes.
This is just a minor example of how illogical this whole story is.
i cannot believe that in a country that is considered the Switzerland, the Paris of the Middle East, women have no rights.in a time where women get high education, get high positions, basically have it all, have no rights whatsoever, it's outrageous. the laws must change or lebanon will cease to be the great country we all love. "
Thanks for this opportunity.
Sarah S.
