Malaysia to correct gender bias with citizenship amendment promising equal rights for foreign-born children

Malaysia is rectifying a gender bias in its constitution next week according to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, allowing foreign-born children to Malaysian mothers and their non-Malaysian spouse to automatically get citizenship, ending years of struggle for many.

Under the current law which goes back to 1963, only Malaysian men who marry non-citizens and have a child abroad can pass their citizenship to their children, while children born to Malaysian mothers under the same arrangement are deprived of the same right.

The prime minister, who was in Berlin on an official visit, said the constitutional provision was wrong, and the cabinet had approved to table the amendment to parliament next week, saying the matter was “done”.

“The issue now is “parent” in the present constitution, for decades means father. We realise it is not right. Parent means father and mother,” Anwar said.

The amendment will affect Article 14 of the constitution which made no mention of mothers when it comes to conferring citizenship to a person born outside of Malaysia.

International rights group Equality Now cited Malaysia as one of the small group of six countries – alongside the Bahamas, Barbados, Iraq, Liberia and Mauritania – that continues to prevent women from passing their citizenship to their children on equal basis as men if the child is born abroad.

Anwar was asked on that matter by a Malaysian woman living in Berlin, whose children are not Malaysian citizens due to this provision, at a Ramadan dinner with the Malaysian diaspora in the German capital.

Such constitutional amendments require a two-thirds majority vote in parliament, a figure commanded by Anwar, that backs his confidence in it being passed.

In 2020, the advocacy group Family Frontiers