The Lebanese University (LU) passed a law exempting children of Lebanese mothers from paying tuition in ‘fresh’ USD.
Originally, the legislation specified that students who don’t have Lebanese nationality will pay in cash USD, with the exception of Syrians and Palestinians residing in Lebanon.
This sparked public outrage as this ended up including children of Lebanese mothers married to foreign nationals. These mothers can’t pass their nationality down to their children due to a law that deems these children “not Lebanese” even if they were born and raised in Lebanon.
The reason these children weren’t an exception from this new legislation requested by the state-run Lebanese University was that they were “forgotten.” That’s to add to the long list of injustices they face in their own country from the state.
For them to be “remembered” in that legislation case, activists had to raise their voices, as did the public outrage. Jinsiyati, one of the organizations concerned with children of Lebanese mothers, had to quickly react and speak to the minister of education.
The state-run Lebanese University with its various campuses in Lebanon is currently suffering the consequences of years of neglect and budget cuts. It decided to introduce this measure to resolve this issue.
Albeit, it affected the wrong people. With the lack of “fresh Dollars” for many people, LU is their last resort for higher education as private universities have become more inaccessible.
The Lebanese University has around 100,000 students whose education is endangered by the circumstances in Lebanon. Some of these include the children of Lebanese mothers, who have already fewer rights and benefits than Lebanese citizens in the country.
