More should follow UAE’s lead in granting citizenship

ABU DHABI // A prominent women’s rights activist says the UAE’s decision to grant citizenship to the children of national woman and foreign men was an example to other countries.

Zainab Salbi said Wednesday that if other countries in the region followed the example, it would boost their economies.

“There is a nominal number of women who are marrying foreigners, not only in the UAE, but in the rest of the Arab world,” said Ms Salbi, founder of Nida’a AlNissa Productions, which makes documentaries focusing on women and youth.

“But it is symbolically very important. It means women are equal as citizens, it means their passport has the same meaning as that of a man. It is has a huge implication, more social rather than economic for now.”

Ms Salbi was speaking at a panel session on empowering women through social media at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit.

The Pew Research Centre says there are 27 countries that stop a woman passing on citizenship to her child or spouse, including all of the other GCC countries, and Jordan, Sudan, Iraq and Syria.

In 2011, on the UAE’s 40th National Day, President Sheikh Khalifa decreed such children could become citizens.

Last year, 898 Emirati women married non-nationals, according to the statistics bureau.

Allowing transfer of citizenship boosts the number of Emiratis companies can hire.

“It would certainly grow the pool of talent of Emiratis,” said Dalya Al Muthanna, Gulf president of General Electric.

“It would widen the scope, which I think is key in an economy that is growing. One of the issues that is high on the agenda of the UAE Government is to see more and more locals participating in the private sector.”

The panel highlighted the importance of the internet and social media in evolving the business environment in the region. Through tools such as Instagram and PayPal, women are setting up their own businesses and gaining economic independence.

Princess Ameerah of Saudi Arabia, founder of Time Entertainment, which invests in Arab youth in the media and technology industry, said that for the first time social media was giving women an equal footing.

“Less than 1 per cent of women are on the boards of GCC companies,” said Princess Ameerah. “In Saudi we should stop talking about the firsts – the first woman pilot, woman director. We should push for the next wave of women achievers.”

Investing in women presents one of the highest return opportunities for the developing world, research from Goldman Sachs shows.

But the financing gap of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) owned by women in developing countriesis US$258 billion (Dh947.68bn). Bringing more women into the labour force boosts per capita income and GDP growth.

Regionally, women who start their own business usually hire a male member of the family as the first employee and invest 90 per cent of the income back into the home.

But male business owners invest about 40 per cent back into the family.

“This is Goldman Sachs telling us the future is with women populating SMEs,” said Ms Salbi.

“This is science, not emotions, and in this part of the world, in our own history and religion, we have precedence of women being financially independent. We need to revive that narrative that is indigenous to us.”

thamid@thenational.ae

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