Iraq

Iraq reformed its Constitution in 2005 and nationality law in 2006 to allow Iraqi women the equal right to confer nationality on their children born inside the country. However, children born outside the country could only obtain citizenship from their father. Iraq’s new nationality law acknowledged the mother’s right to confer nationality only when the father was unknown or stateless. However, strict procedural requirements made it practically impossible to prove that the father was stateless. There are a high number of Iraqi women married to non-Iraqi men living in the diaspora, plus an estimated one million Iraqi refugees who were living in Syria, which placed many children at risk of statelessness.