Critique and examination on the Requirements and Consequences of the Act of Nationality of Children from Marriage between Iranian Women and Foreign Men 2019

Discrimination between maternal and paternal descent in the naturalization for children has given rise to difficulties for children from marriage between Iranian women and foreign men in Iran legal system. Article 976 (2) has been limited to paternal descent and the text of paragraph 4 of this Article has been codified ambiguously. These factors make a question if the children from marriage between Iranian women and foreign men are able to acquire Iranian nationality or have been regarded as Iranian nationalities since their birth. 2006 Act had been passed to solve this problem that could not achieve the goals successfully then it has been replaced by the 2019 Act. This paper by descriptive-analytical review shows that although the 2019 Act is simplifying the naturalization for them, these children are deprived Iranian original nationality under the Article 976(4). According to this Act, it is required not to have security problems to naturalize these children. Furthermore, according to this Act, canonical marriage between parents is enough to deserve these children to have the benefit of this Act. So, the future of legal and formal requirements for legal marriage between Iranian women and foreign men leaves unclear while the regulations 2020 have limited it to canonical marriage before the implementation of the Act. According to paragraph 2 of 2019 Act, stateless people who were born in Iran from parents who at least one of them was born in Iran deserve to naturalization.