CChapter 3: Comparative analysis of nationality laws rather than the threat of statelessness for the child, for it may be that the father does hold a nationality and yet the child is unable to inherit it. Moreover, the child of a Kuwaiti, Lebanese, Qatari, Saudi Arabian or Syrian mother will fail to acquire her nationality even if the father in question is stateless. None of these countries has any significant safeguard in place for the avoidance of statelessness among children who are descendants of a female national118 – although children of a male national will always receive nationality. There are also significant legal gaps when it comes to safeguards that provide nationality to a child who is born on state territory and would otherwise be stateless. Some such children will benefit from the general jus soli provisions outlined in the previous section. But many of these have a rather narrow scope and the preference for a double jus soli rule means that the first generation of children born in these states’ territory will not be protected from statelessness under these clauses. Only two countries in the MENA region have in place the “perfect” legislative safeguard against childhood statelessness within their borders: 118 - The only situation in which women holding one of these nationalities can transmit it to her children is where the father is unknown, although even this is not possible in Qatar. 93

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