Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Cabinet has approved a proposed amendment to the country's citizenship law to award nationality to children of any Bangladeshi woman married to a foreigner.
The Cabinet, in its weekly meeting on Wednesday, approved the amendment as the past military-backed interim government promulgated an ordinance incorporating the provision in the Citizenship Act while under the previous 1951 law only children of a Bangladeshi man married to a foreign woman was eligible to get citizenship of the country.
"Under the clause 5 of the 1951 Citizenship Act, only children of a Bangladeshi man married to a foreign woman was eligible to get citizenship of Bangladesh. Under the amended law, children of a Bangladeshi woman married to a foreigner will be entitled to obtain Bangladeshi citizenship," Prime Minister's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told reporters at a briefing after the Cabinet meeting.