Syrian Citizenship Disappeared vented me. Finally through mediation, we managed to let our mother in the hospital as a doctor’s relative. During eight nights none of the doctors entered her room to give her the injection and we even purchased the injections from outside the hospital at high prices.” Siyamand Wahhab Wahhab also narrated an occasion which hurt his soul because of his previous status as maktum: “When I was in sixth grade, a soccer championship was organised among the primary schools located in Ras al-Ein/Sari Kani and I was the first candidate pupil to present the team of al-Sharqiya School. I did not find my name in the players’ list and when I asked the sport teacher, who was also the coach, why, he replied that I was ajnabi and they could not let me join because that was illegal and might cause problems.7¹²⁰ It was such a painful experience and made me feel inferior. The ajanib and maktumeen were not allowed to participate in all the activities outside the school. After that, I had the chance to participate in the second-class Syrian league with the city’s youth team but using another student’s name. The management of the team forged my name and registered it under the name of another one who had the Syrian nationality because I was the forward player in the team.” Stateless Kurds from Syria would also anguish over the safety of their family. Among the same family, the 1962 census could arbitrarily classify members as maktumeen, ajanib or citizens. Narin Nawaf Mahmoud was born in Qamishli in 1984. She stated that she belongs to a family whose members were classified maktumeen and ajanib by the 1962 census: “It all started when the special census for al-Hasakah was conducted. The tragic irony about the census is that in some families one brother re120 Also known as the Martyr Mahmoud Al-Sheikh Mahmoud School. mained a citizen while the other was deprived of his citizenship and became ajnabi, and in others the father kept his Syrian citizenship but his wife and children lost theirs or the other way round. I was classified as maktumah, while my husband a citizen, and my father is maktum while my mother is ajnabiyah, and so are my grandparents and uncles. Thereby, we, Kurds, became strangers in our own country, we born and die illegally since births resulting from marriages have no official records in the personal status department, especially if one of the parents is maktum. This census caused a humanitarian catastrophe that still continue up to now8¹²¹.” Badi’ah Farhan Hasan told9¹²² STJ that the special census divided her family between maktumeen and citizens. She is a Syrian national whereas her husband and her four children are maktumeen. That made her feel sorrow on her children’s legal status as maktumeen which has not changed so far despite the continuous attempts. Rawdah Khalil Mohamed, was born in Amouda city, in al-Hasakah in 1974, and is married with three kids who are maktumeen. She is a citizen but her children are deprived of citizenship. “My suffering started when I got married to a man who was maktum and I gave birth to three children. I am a citizen but my situation is like maktumeen now because my children are maktumeen and I can do nothing to help them. I tried hard to demand for the right of the mother to grant nationality to her children but the Syrian law rejects that. My children have grown up and are now young men working as freelancers. I feel they will have no future and end up like their father living in poverty. Despite the Decree that granted Syr121 STJ's field researcher conducted a direct interview with her in Qamishli/Qamishlo in March 2018. 122 STJ's field researcher conducted a direct interview with her in Qamishli in March 2018. 47