Iraqi women stripped of Kuwaiti citizenship left without documents, rights body says

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's High Commission for Human Rights has told the Prime Minister's Office that a group of Iraqi women, many of them originally from Basra, have been left without valid identification in Kuwait after their Kuwaiti citizenship was revoked. Commission official Mahdi al-Tamimi said the women, who are married to Kuwaiti citizens and in some cases hold custody rulings, cannot obtain the Iraqi identity documents Kuwaiti authorities require for residency procedures. Al-Tamimi said the women's records were previously closed in Iraqi civil registry offices when they were granted Kuwaiti nationality, making it impossible to issue new documents. He added that Kuwaiti authorities have also confiscated their passports and payment cards, leaving them in what he described as severe humanitarian conditions. The Basra office of the Commission has asked the Interior Ministry to send a dedicated team to Kuwait to resolve the cases and urged the Prime Minister's Office to act quickly. The Commission called on the government to address what it described as the women's ongoing hardship. Separately, Kuwait's Supreme Committee for Citizenship Review has continued reviewing citizenship files under the country's 1959 Nationality Law. The committee has previously announced that it had revoked the citizenship of thousands of people, citing what it described as the country's supreme interest.