In a landmark court decision, several Malaysian mothers won a legal battle Thursday for the right to pass their nationality to their children born abroad. The decision hailed by activists as a giant step toward gender equality.
Malaysia is one of 25 countries that do not give mothers and fathers equal rights under the country’s citizenship laws. According to Malaysia’s constitution, fathers the automatic right to confer citizenship to their children born abroad, but it doesn’t mention mothers. Six Malaysian women and the family support group Family Frontiers filed a legal suit in December 2020 against the decades-old law they called discriminatory. The government argued the court had no jurisdiction to hear the issue of citizenship. The Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that Malaysian women have the same automatic rights as Malaysian men to pass their citizenship to their overseas-born children, Family Frontiers said in a statement. It was not immediately known if the government will appeal the decision. Home Ministry officials couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Family Frontiers has said some Malaysian women remained in abusive marriages so that they don’t lose custody of their children, while others face separation from their children if their marriages end. Its president, Suri Kempe, said the judgement was a huge relief for all Malaysian mothers whose children are affected and that it marked “one step forward to a more egalitarian and just Malaysia.”
