Suzan El Tahhan Bidoons: A Statelessness Plight in Kuwait ‫مجلة الدراسات القانونية واالقتصادية‬ should never hire or marry. In the third part of my paper, I would focus on this legalcultural paradox. In conclusion, Bidoons in Kuwait passed through a series of discriminatory uprising stages that deprived them of fundamental human rights starting from their registration as Kuwaiti citizens; when part of the population failed to register, they then turned to be stateless Bidoons, passing through the issuance of several new laws that deprived Bidoons of many of their civil rights; i.e., issuing travel documents, ending driver license renewal, exclusion from public schools, denial of access to universities/clubs, dismissal from their jobs and losing their rights to free health care. I.C. Reasons for Discrimination Against Bidoons While discussing the historical background above, we got exposed to many reasons for the widespread discriminatory policy; however, there's still more to add in this regard. As discussed before, statelessness in Kuwait stems from restrictive citizenship laws besides the lack of effective mechanisms to review applicants' claims for citizenship. Security also appears as a reason for such discrimination. However, what's meant by security here is the desire to keep national wealth for the few in these oilproducing countries, while in some cases the desire to keep the demographic balance in favor of the ruling families and against other religious or national groups remains the unspoken factors behind inclusion or exclusion in most of these countries.24 Nevertheless, the big apple here is still politics. Official intolerance to Bidoons escalated with the outbreak of the war between Iran and Iraq in 1980 that threatened Kuwait's internal stability, turning the country to be a target of terrorist attacks.25 Abas Shiblak, Statelessness “The lost tribes of Arabia”, Forced Migration Review, FMR32, April 2009, P.38, available at: www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR32/37-38.pdf 25 Human Rights Watch, Prisoners of the Past: Kuwaiti Bidoons and the Burden of Statelessness, 13 June 2011, P.13, available at :http://www.refworld.org/docid/4df7191b2.html [accessed 23 December 2015]. 24 12