TEHRAN – Thanks to the child citizenship law, the first identity card has recently been issued for a child born to an Iranian mother and a foreign father.

“Thanks to efforts made to approve and implement the law, the first Iranian identity card was issued for a child born to an Iranian mother and a foreign father,” Masoumeh Ebtekar, vice president for women’s and family affairs, wrote on her Twitter account on Saturday.
Mansour Haji, director of citizens and foreign immigrants of Tehran governorate, said that through the implementation of the child citizenship law, 18,300 applicants have been registered on the website for citizenship.

Of the people who requested citizenship, 1,551 cases have been approved for the issuance of Iranian identity cards, and 1,400 cases are awaiting approval, he stated.

He went on to add that now the first Iranian identity card in the country was issued for a child.

In October 2019, the Guardian Council ratified a bill amending the law on conferring citizenship on children born to an Iranian mother and a foreign father regardless of where they are born.

According to article one of the law, children of Iranian women and non-Iranian men who were born before or after the law can be an Iranian citizen in case the Iranian mother requested if they have no security problem before the age of 18.

These children, after reaching the age of 18, can apply for Iranian citizenship if not requested by the mother, then will be granted Iranian citizenship in case of no security problem.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees also has welcomed the law as a step toward reducing statelessness around the world.

Worldwide, statelessness affects millions of people, leaving them without the basic rights and official recognition that most of us take for granted. Some 3.9 million stateless people appear in the reporting of 78 countries, but UNHCR believes the true total to be significantly higher.

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