Foreign spouses also risk being rendered temporarily stateless until they are able to comply with the legal and administrative requirements needed to obtain a new nationality. Although this risk can, in principle, apply to both male and female foreign spouses, the requirements imposed by naturalization procedures such as language tests, proof of economic self-sufficiency, or housing may be more difficult for women to meet, as they may not have the same educational opportunities as men and are more likely to be financially dependent on their spouses.102 Refugees and other forcibly displaced people are particularly vulnerable to becoming stateless due to gender-discriminatory nationality laws and barriers to birth registration. Birth registration per se does not confer nationality, which is acquired through a state’s nationality law. However, registering a birth establishes a legal record as to where the child was born and the identity of the parents, key information for proving entitlement to nationality (UNHCR 2017). Hence, recently, the UN’s CEDAW Committee and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) have urged state parties to ensure registration of births and issuance of birth certificates to allow access to basic services and avoid statelessness (see box 4). Syrian refugees have suffered complex identification challenges due to their displacement. In Lebanon and Jordan, they have experienced barriers to birth registration and certification for a variety of reasons including complex and lengthy procedures, difficulty in accessing documentation, problematic physical access, and illiteracy (Norwegian Refugee Council 2017). Syrian women’s inability to confer nationality on their children combined with the massive displacement resulting from the ongoing conflict has resulted in a situation where a generation of Syrian children born abroad are at risk of being stateless. Children of Syrian refugees born in other countries cannot acquire the nationality of their mothers under Syrian law.103 Syrian mothers can only confer nationality on their children if they are born in Syria and the father does not establish filiation in relation with the child.104 If the Syrian father is dead or missing, acquisition of the father’s nationality depends on the birth being registered, as well as the marriage and the father’s death, in accordance with Syrian law. However, many Syrian women refugees, separated from their husbands, lack the necessary documentation to prove their marriage and the paternity of children born abroad (Norwegian Refugee Council 2017). If the child is not able to obtain the father’s nationality, he or she will be stateless unless born in a country that provides nationality based on birth in the territory of a state (American Bar Association 2017; UNHCR 2017; Norwegian Refugee Council 2017). II. Gender-based legal barriers against women to identification 11