Dubai: Parents in Bahrain could soon be banned from giving their newborns names that are deemed unacceptable by the government, Gulf Daily reported
Members of the Shura Council voted in favor of the proposal Tuesday as they debated a draft law to protect the rights of children. The aim is to prevent children being ridiculed for having an "improper" name, which MPs believe could cause psychological strain, the report said.
The process will be that all newborns' names will have to be registered with the government, which would issue a birth certificate stating that the child's name had been accepted.
Shura councilors approved the relevant article in the child protection law, but did not discuss punishments for parents who choose "improper" names - or whether children will be able to take against their parents if they are unhappy with their name, the newspaper said.
The article issued states that parents will not be able to select names that contradict religions or are likely to cause psychological problems for children.
However, other articles in the child protection law - which was approved by parliament before the summer – sparked controversy among Shura Council onTuesday.
They split over an article that obliges parents to report the death of their children to a registrar, as well as another that would grant Bahraini nationality to every child born in this country.
Former Supreme Council for Women secretary-general councilor Lulwa Al Awadhi was among those arguing against all newborns becoming Bahraini citizens the newspaper quoted her saying "The article is unclear and means every child born here will be granted nationality regardless of parenthood.”
The government's representative, Minister of State for Shura Council and Parliament Affairs Abdul Aziz Al Fadhel, said that the article must be scrapped, since such issues were already covered by legislation dedicated to nationality issues.
"We have a set of requirements that have to be fulfilled for the nationality to be issued and they are already covered in the nationality law, so having them here will create unnecessary confusion," he said.
The Shura Council's woman and child committee chairwoman Dalal Al Zayed, foreign affairs, defence and national security committee chairman Dr Salah Abdul Rahman and council member Dr Nasser Al Mubarak also opposed the article.
However, Dr Abdul Rahman added that he opposed the law only because it was covered elsewhere and said there was no reason that all newborns shouldn't get Bahraini citizenship.
"I don't believe that we need this article in this law because it is covered somewhere else, but that doesn't mean there should be differentiation between children - it's their right to be named as proud citizens when born here," he was quoted saying in the article.
Council first vice-chairman Jamal Fakhro, second vice-chairwoman Dr Bahiya Al Jishi, services committee chairwoman Dr Nada Haffadh and council member Jameela Salman were among those in favour of keeping the article unchanged.
Legal consultant Dr Essam Al Banzargi suggested a solution would be to grant citizenship to all children who meet requirements set out in other legislation related to nationality.
The issue has been now referred to the Shura Council's woman and child committee for further review.
Once the child protection law is passed, it will mean that seven ministries and government organisations will have to amend their own bylaws and come up with projects serving children aged up to 18 years old, according to Gulf Daily news.
