Zahra Albarazi children born inside as well as outside a country. Women can also only pass on their nationality in exceptional circumstances in all of the remaining countries – apart from Qatar, where mothers can never transfer their nationality under any circumstances. The most common of the exceptions under which a mother can transmit her nationality is where the father is unknown, the father is stateless or paternal affiliation has not been legally established (i.e. where children are born out of wedlock, or when for one reason or another it is been difficult to provide any proof). Some countries have a few of these criteria, some have all. In some countries, such as UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait, there are unique maternal ius sanguinis provisions in place, where children born in these countries are entitled to facilitated naturalisation upon reaching the age of majority. In each country, this comes with additional criteria that need to be met. However, across all of them, these decisions are left to the state’s discretion, so it is not an automatic or certain entitlement for children of female citizens. Ius soli Ius soli, the second mechanism for establishing nationality is through territorial links to the state – in other words, links with the soil. This method is less central to nationality policy in the region, although it still does exist in varying forms across all the legislation. Ius soli acquisition of nationality applies in three contexts: where birth in the country allows access to nationality, in the context of special provisions for foundlings, and in the form of residence requirements for naturalisation and those conferring nationality by marriage Birth in the country: The ius soli doctrine of a child obtaining nationality because they are born in the state’s territory is not very common in the MENA region. No country in the region has a ius soli provision which would grant nationality to everyone born on the state’s territory, irrespective of who their parents are. However, most countries do in some way connect birth in the country to a system for acquiring the nationality of that country. One of the most common is the “double” or “triple” ius soli system, which can be found in several countries in the region. This means that two or three successive generations of birth on the territory may lead to the right to acquire nationality. One example of this is in Mauritania, where if a child is born to a parent (whether their mother or father) who was also born in Mauritania they are able to apply for a nationality.45 In Yemen, this is automatic for double ius soli – but only through the father; and in Tunisia it is triple paternal ius soli – where the acquisition of nationality by birth on state territory is automatic, but only if the child’s father and the paternal grandfather were born in the country.46 In Iraq, the law stipulates paternal double ius soli, however it is a discretionary application procedure and therefore not an automatic conferral of nationality. In other countries there are even more additional criteria, for example in Morocco where, for its double ius soli provision a registration procedure – that is not discretionary – must be fulfilled, and requires either that the father who was born in Morocco, also originate from an Arabicspeaking or a Muslim country, or that both parents were born in Morocco and are permanent 45 46 12 Portant code de la Nationalité Mauritanienne, 1961, Article 9(1). Le Code de la Nationalite Tunisienne 2011, Article 4(c), Article 7. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-Comp. 2017/3- © 2017 Author(s)