Okaz/Saudi Gazette RIYADH — The Shoura Council on Sunday will start discussing a draft law to regulate marriages between Saudi citizens and residents of other nationalities. The Council of Ministers returned the 13-article draft paper on intermarriages to the council due to concerns over some of its contents. The Shoura Council has established a special committee headed by Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Suwailim to reconsider these differences before forwarding the draft project to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. Under Article 17 of the Shoura Council's statutes, the council's draft projects will be directly submitted to the King when there are differences in viewpoints with the Council of Ministers. When finally approved, the new law will replace an older one issued in 1973. The council has approved this draft project to regulate the marriages of Saudis to other nationalities about two years ago, but the paper was returned by the Council of Ministers to redraft some articles. The first article was subsequently amended to read: "Organizing the marriages of Saudis to others according to Islamic Shariah rules. " The council's special committee endorsed a statute in the draft paper that Saudis will be allowed to marry non-Saudis born in the Kingdom to foreign parents on the condition that the latter has a regular iqama and a Saudi birth certificate issued by the Civil Affairs Department. The foreigner should have resided in the Kingdom for five consecutive years at the time of applying for marriage. The committee saw no reason to increase the period of residence in the Kingdom to 10 years, as the Council of Ministers had demanded. Customs officials have been added to the categories of Saudis allowed to marry non-Saudis, including GCC citizens, after obtaining the consent of the Supreme Authority. Under the new project, the categories of citizens allowed to marry non-Saudi women included ministers, senior government officials, diplomats, Shoura Council members, military personnel and judges. Students studying abroad were not included among the categories permitted to marry non-Saudis. Under the draft law, a special committee comprising representatives from the ministries of foreign affairs, interior and social affairs in addition to the Human Rights Commission will examine the requests of Saudis to marry foreigners. The law has made it imperative to include in the marriage contract a condition preventing the foreign husband of a Saudi women from traveling outside with his children without his wife's consent. Under the draft law, the children of a Saudi woman married to a foreign husband will have the right to medical care, education and employment in the private sector on the same footing as Saudi nationals.
