Moroccan Women will soon Pass Nationality to Foreign Spouses `

Morocco is working on new legislation enabling Moroccan women to pass nationality to their foreign spouses, said family minister Bassima Hakkaoui.

“Borders should never deprive people from enjoying nationality rights,” Hakkaoui said in a recent statement to the press on the sidelines of a visit to UN Women in New York.

It has been 11 years that Morocco enabled Moroccan women to pass citizenship to their offsprings born to foreign parents. The number of the children who received the Moroccan nationality from their mothers rose to 33,500 children, she said.

Last December, the parliament majority bloc submitted a draft law providing for granting Moroccan nationality to foreign spouses of Moroccan women.

The draft amends the provisions of Article 10 of the nationality law, which grants Moroccan nationality only to a foreign wife of a Moroccan citizen.

The draft law aims at ending such a discrimination by naturalizing husbands of Moroccan women provided they prove they had been married for 5 years at least.

The bill does not condition applying for Moroccan nationality on the continuation of the marriage as divorced men can apply if they prove to have been married for 5 years.