Nationality and Cases of Statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa property, education and employment. Indefinite detention, severe marginalisation and vulnerability to child recruitment and early marriage can also result from this problem.  However, the varying causes of statelessness (both historic and new) when coupled with regional geo-politics have convoluted the issue to such an extent that any solution appears too distant and complicated to be achievable. However, as this report shows, such solutions are not necessarily too complicated, and there are many mechanisms to both prevent and reduce statelessness in the MENA. For example, the initial development of nation States, and ultimately nationality laws, in the MENA region came at a time of socio-political chaos.   Independence from colonial powers was being fought for, borders were being drawn up, and with an emerging power vacuum, populations began to face a growing nationalistic panArab philosophy.  Against this setting, states were faced with the challenge of establishing their own distinct national character. The majority of States adopted legislation and policies that were heavy in racial, gender and ethnic discrimination in the granting of their nationality.   Several ethnic minority communities for example, such as the Kurds in Syria and Iraq were denationalized, a step that simply removed them from the citizenry. Women across the region were not given the right to transmit their 10