Man With No Nationality Battles for Citizenship - Human Rights/Saudi Arabia/Marriage/Womens Rights
Badea Abu Al-Naja; 5/3/08
A man, whose Saudi father divorced his Egyptian mother over 20 years ago, is calling on the Saudi authorities to grant him citizenship and officially recognize his lineage. The 29-year-old man, called Bahauddin, has neither Saudi nor Egyptian citizenship. His father, Abdullah, married his mother unofficially only to divorce her and return to the Kingdom five months after Bahauddin’s birth. Bahauddin’s mother had to pay for his education in state schools because he was not an Egyptian. Unable to meet costs, she withdrew him from school after primary education. The 29-year-old Bahauddin had tried to obtain Egyptian citizenship on several occasions, but to no avail. Each time, Egyptian authorities asked him to bring his father’s ID, something that he was unable to do.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=107494&d=5&m=3&y=2008