Bahrain Women’s Union Supports New Legislations to Protect Women

On the occasion of the Bahraini Woman’s Day, 20 December 2009,

the Bahrain Women’s Union issued a statement in which it vowed to strive towards the issuing of the second section of the Family Law concerning the Shia. The statement called for the amendment of the nationality law to allow Bahraini women married to non-Bahrainis the right to pass their nationality onto their children, based on the Constitution which treats citizens equally. The statement also stressed that it was important that Bahrain ratify the Optional Protocol of CEDAW and the speedy issuing of a law protecting against domestic violence as well as the ratification of the ILO Convention No. 183 on the respect of motherhood and the rights of working women in the private sector, ensuring a fair maternity leave for women in order to perform their familiar duties and protecting them from discrimination on the basis of pregnancy or breast feeding.