Already moved by a very touching play on the woes suffered by women for lack of equal rights staged on the occasion by the Sarvanam theater group, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala and CPN-UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal had simply no choice but to acknowledge that they had indeed failed so far to give due attention to this very important issue.[break]
“The dispute resolution subcommittee has been discussing the issue of citizenship. I realize that there are faults in the draft and wherever women have been discriminated against corrections will be made,” said Dahal.
Koirala added that equal rights for men and women is not a big issue any more. “Nepal is now at such a level that neither party can deprive the other of their rights. Women should and will definitely get equal rights in terms of everything; the new constitution has to erase all the discriminatory provisions,” he said.
Meanwhile, another speaker, Laxmanlal Karna, Vice-president of Madhesi Morcha, said that both men and women have equal rights to choose who they wish to marry. “You cannot restrict a person from loving or marrying somebody. There should be the same provisions for males and females regarding citizenship laws,” he added.
However, Khanal ventured to evoke public ire by relating women´s fundamental rights to nationality.
“Everyone, irrespective of gender, should have equal rights but nationality comes first.” He was indicating that it would be worrisome if Indian men received Nepali citizenship by marrying Nepal girls or their children got citizenship.
“But that should not be a reason for depriving women of their rights. They now have to move out of the patriarchal mindset. Every citizen must be treated equally and the state must see to that,” said Dr Renu Rajbhandari, president of National Human Rights Defenders network.
“If at all there is a clash with leaders´ interests or what they call nationality, they need to tackle the problem some other way, but not by giving women lesser rights,” she added.
Even though the interim constitution states otherwise, some vague sub-clauses restrict citizenship through the mother´s name, thus barring offspring from enjoying citizens´ rights, to say nothing about the husband having her national identity transmitted to him.
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