Kuwait
Date: 2025
Medium: Studio Self Portrait
Date: 2025
Medium: Studio Self Portrait
For the foreign-born wives of Kuwaiti men who recently lost their Kuwaiti citizenship, home is a paradox. Inside what was once their homeland, they built a home, a family, a sense of place. Integration into this small city state was very likely challenging for many if not most of them.
For these women, building a homeland entailed two kinds of integration: the first into the community, and the second into the state. The first was always much more challenging.
Before the discovery of oil, Kuwaiti men - sailors, captains, pearl divers, merchants - braved the monsoon winds to reach the coasts of India and Africa to eke out a livelihood. While the men were at sea, the women held the fort back home; sustaining intricate networks of patronage, exchange and mutual care. Together, they wove a tight-knit collective that ensured survival.
Despite the country’s transition from maritime trade to oil wealth, the centrality of community remained almost intact. Even today, community trumps society. Starting in the 1960s, many Kuwaiti men would return back home from their studies abroad with foreign wives. By and large the majority cultivated their new milieu, absorbing customs and navigating the codes of belonging.
Integration into the state was comparatively straightforward. After five years in the country, most of the women could apply and obtain Kuwaiti citizenship, acquiring the same rights as their fellow citizens.
In October 2024, the government revoked the citizenship of thousands of foreign-born Kuwaiti women who had obtained it after 1987. Overnight, they became foreigners in their own country. Having long renounced their original citizenship, many were rendered stateless.
This project is an attempt to capture this paradox.
