CEDAW provides that women are to have the same rights as men to acquire, retain or change their nationality, regardless of marriage and divorce and what their husbands do with their own nationality. In General Recommendation No. 32, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women confirmed that Article 9(1) of CEDAW also means that women must enjoy the same rights as men in conferring nationality to their foreign spouse. Application Laws that do not allow women to pass on their nationality to their spouse in the same manner as men can pose risks to family unity. Foreign men may be forced to live away from their children as they may find it more difficult to acquire residency permits, and they may face barriers to employment, thus jeopardising the social and economic security of the children and family. Additionally, if foreign husbands are not able to obtain a work permit, women may be compelled to provide for the whole family, which may force them to accept precarious and exploitative conditions of work that have a negative impact on their human rights. The practice of ensuring that a woman does not have her own nationality revoked or changed automatically due to a change in her marital status, or a change in the nationality of her husband affords women vital protection from statelessness that can arise in connection with marriages, separations, or changes in the citizenship status of their spouses. Operating in tandem with the principle that women should enjoy full and equal rights to convey nationality to children, this requirement also offers enhanced protection against children being born without nationality by ensuring that a mother remains in possession of a nationality which can then be conveyed to her child. States in the Gulf region have enacted a number of positive provisions in this area, including protections which ensure that a woman cannot lose her nationality in connection with changes in her marital status or her husband’s citizenship, if such loss would render her stateless. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain have all adopted dedicated provisions to this effect. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia further clarify that a woman will not lose her nationality upon marrying a foreign national until and unless she acquires the nationality of 29