her class. In fact, Zeynab won a scholarship to travel to Canada for a summer school program, but could not go because she did not have a nationality. Zeynab attended a private technical college and has specialized in marketing and sales. She now works for a cosmetics retailer, but because she does not have a nationality and no identity papers, she is paid informally in cash and earns almost half of what she would earn if she were Lebanese. “Sometimes I hate myself. I feel like I am not a human being. I can’t handle it. My friends can live a natural life. I can’t. My dream to own a car, I can’t have it. Even if I have the money to buy it, it would never be registered in my own name. I dream of getting married, but one man has turned me down because I don’t have a citizenship. I feel like a prisoner. Lebanese papers are worth more than gold, you can pay millions but still not get them. It’s hard for me to see Lebanese girls who have nationality and their papers, especially when they’re not taking advantage of their status as they could – studying, working, fulfilling the dreams I wish I could achieve, but can’t.” Sleiman (Lebanon) Sleiman was born in Lebanon, but does not have Lebanese citizenship. Sleiman’s father and paternal ancestors never registered their family with civil registrars in Lebanon. His father, however, married his mother, a Lebanese citizen. Ever since his birth, Sleiman has not been able to register and obtain legal identification documents as the authorities have said he is not entitled to Lebanese citizenship. He first encountered problems when he reached school age and realized that he needed Lebanese identification papers to go to school. At that time, they were able to receive permission from the mukhtar (mayor) to go to school. But then the Lebanese Civil War broke out. Sleiman did not pursue schooling any further and entered his family business. His father always worked in iron manufacturing and Sleiman now owns and manages one of the top 10 iron companies in Lebanon. When the Lebanese government adopted the 1994 Naturalization Decree, Sleiman and other members of his family applied to naturalize to acquire Lebanese citizenship. Sleiman’s father and brothers were successful in obtaining Lebanese citizenship, but Sleiman and his sister were not. Sleiman hired a lawyer to understand why his naturalization application was unsuccessful. He has an open legal request at the Ministry of Justice. He regularly approaches community, political and religious figures to ask for their help in resolving his situation. But all of these efforts have thus far been in vain. He says “I am now nearly 50 years old and am fed up of begging.” In 20052006, Sleiman obtained a laissez-passer identification document, which he uses to travel around Lebanon. But this document does not offer him any rights of citizenship. At first, Sleiman did not want to marry because of his lack of citizenship and his fear that citizenship problems would persist in his family. But when he applied for naturalization pursuant to the 1994 Decree and thought his situation would be resolved, he married a woman who is a Lebanese citizen. They have two children who are both now stateless as they do not have any citizenship through Sleiman and cannot obtain Lebanese citizenship through their mother due to the discriminatory citizenship law. “Now my son is 14 years old. I can pay for him to go to private university. But if he is an engineer, if he is a Doctor, he won’t be able to practice his profession because he has no citizenship. Lebanon is not thinking about the future of its children.” Sleiman’s wife is also exasperated that her children cannot acquire Lebanese citizenship and despairs at 8