|
Yasmine Pourhashemi and Sara Pourhashemi are two Belgian sisters of Iranian descent who, as a result of a child custody dispute, lived for over half a year in the Belgian embassy in Tehran, causing a long diplomatic dispute between Belgium and Iran. Child custody and guardianship are legal terms which are sometimes used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parents duty to care for the child. ...
Tehran (IPA: ; Persian: تهران, also transliterated as Teheran or TehrÄn), population (as of 2005) 7,314,000 (metropolitan: 12,151,000), and a land area of 658 square kilometers, is the capital city of Iran (Persia) and the center of Tehran Province. ...
The girls, aged 14 and 6 at the time, lived with their divorced mother, and were taken on a holiday to Greece by their father in August 2003. From Greece, he forced them to go with him to Iran. In December the sisters managed to escape from their father's apartment and found refuge in the Belgian embassy.
Because the family members hold dual nationality, this led to a complex legal debate. Under Belgian law the father of the girls had signed away custody rights after his divorce from their mother. The country issued an international arrest warrant against him on the charge of kidnapping. According to Iranian law, which does not recognize double nationality and usually favors men in custody cases, the girls were Iranians and should be with their father. Multiple citizenship is simultaneous citizenship in two or more countries (whether it is recognized by all countries or not). ...
Belgium's minister of foreign affairs Louis Michel travelled to Iran in March 2004 to find a solution but without success. Only after a visit in May 2004 by the Iranian minister of foreign affairs Kamal Kharrazi to Belgium, where he met Michel and Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, were the girls allowed to return to their mother. Louis Michel Louis Michel (born September 2, 1947) was until July 2004 the Belgian foreign minister. ...
Kamal Kharrazi (Persian: کمال خرازی) (born December 1, 1944 in Tehran), is the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, serving since August 20, 1997. ...
Guy Verhofstadt Guy Verhofstadt Pronunciation (born April 11, 1953) is the current Prime Minister of Belgium. ...
See also
The Netherlands abandoned its traditional policy of neutrality after World War II. The Dutch have since become engaged participants in international affairs. ...
External links |
Feeds |
Contact