A Reflection on the Legal Status of Children without Identity Resulted from Marriage between Iranian Women and Foreign Men

In the recent years, many foreign nationals entered Iran illegally, some of them married Iranian women illegally, and children were born to them.Some of these foreigner nationals returned to their countries; and their Iranian wives have found themselves faced by the problem of children without identity cards. These children are called children without identity. To solve this problem, an act called "the Act to Determine the Citizenship Status of Children Resulted from Marriage between Iranian Women and Foreign Men" was enacted. As long as these children are not 18 years old, however, this Act has no efficiency; and till then, no supportive measure has been considered for them. Specifying a deadline for the foreigner nationals to register and obtain necessary documents to change their status to that of an allowed refugee or homeless man, granting Iranian citizenship to such "foreign" parents, or granting citizenship to them more easily are among solutions which may be employed. It seems, however, that finding of the main solution should be left to the legislator, so that, through some changes made in the Civil Law, while protecting Iranian citizenship of the Iranian women- if they marry foreign men- and developing the blood system to Iranian mother,he may prevent the problem of children without identity. Such an arrangement seems to be consistent with the Articles 41 and 42 of the Constitution. The present study will, at first, explain the concept of children without identity, and then goes to discuss the reasons behind emergence of such children, and provide some ways to prevent this phenomenon.