Last week I went to an FMRS lecture on nationality in Egpyt and how it restricts womens rights as well as the rights, obviously, of refugees. It was really interesting. In attendence was a woman lawyer who has been working on changing the laws on nationality here in egypt from a feminist perspective. The laws here currently give nationality only through the father. This means, that if your mother is Egyptian, you are born in Egpyt, live your entire life in Egpyt, but your father was born in Saudi Arabia…you do not have Egyptian citizenship. You have to apply, and obtaining Egyptian citizenship is considered to be VERY challenging. If you are a male born in America to a man with Egyptian citizenship, have never set foot in Egypt, have a son who has also never set foot in Egypt…all of you have Egyptian citizenship, even if the mothers are American. Therefore, kids born in Egpyt, living their entire lives in Egpyt, but born to an egpytian mother and a man of another nationality have ot apply for citizenship, while children born outside of Egpyt to an Egyptian man, and never having set foot here are automatically granted Egyptian citizenship. The woman has a point… Another issue discussed were the rights denied foreigners without nationality in Egpyt. For one, they are denied any sort of high money making job by law, they cannot become lawyers, nor doctors. Their rights to own property are limited, with cars allowed but not boats, etc. They are limited on many things. One limitation I found amusing is that foreigners are legally prohibted from oriental dance. Belly dancing. So all the times my girlfriends and I have belly danced around our rooms…(or made sorry attempts) we are breaking the law. I laughed at this at first…then realized that many foreign women come in and make BANK belly dancing, as most Egyptian women will not dance publicly (they all know how to do it, but it is not suitable to dance in front of male non-relatives). Therefore, belly dancing can be included as a money making enterprise. Interesting, eh?