When you travel to find work, women in this country will look down on you because, implicitly, you are acknowledging that your situation, and perhaps your country, is financially weaker. Women generally do not associate with financially inferior men. If you add to that a racially or religiously biased view against you, know that you have inevitably fallen into the trap of sexual isolation. You will have no choice but to look for a life partner from your home country, which is usually very difficult when you are abroad.
The Needle of Femininity and the Straw of Exile
Globally, expatriate women are fewer compared to their male counterparts, especially single women, who are the least in number. The job opportunities available abroad often require candidates to be male, with exceptions in the healthcare, hospitality, or domestic services sectors.
According to an article by Alexa Borcsok on LinkedIn, based on the 2022 Global Mobility Survey conducted by Mercer, women make up only 23% of the expatriate workforce. Furthermore, 60% of women who migrate with their husbands for work become unemployed after relocating, often disrupting their career paths.
This small percentage of expatriate women makes it extremely difficult for expatriate men to find a bride in a foreign country, akin to finding a needle in a haystack. This situation lowers the expectations and criteria of male expatriates to a minimal level. The annual leave during which an expatriate visits his home country for a limited period typically does not allow enough time to find a dream girl. Even if he sees someone through family or friends’ recommendations or online dating platforms, the remaining time is often insufficient for adequate acquaintance to make a marriage decision.
If the marriage happens, the expatriate man remains troubled by the potential material greed associated with him.
Low Expectations for Marriage Abroad
Some expatriate young men look for women who are also living abroad. Due to their scarcity, these men may eventually accept marrying a woman from a different nationality, even without cultural or age similarities. They may even marry someone of a different faith.
I met an Arab expatriate carpenter working in a Gulf country who met an Asian nurse while visiting the hospital after a work injury. He married her without informing his family in his home country because his limited income couldn’t support bringing his first wife over. He and his Asian wife agreed that they couldn’t afford a shared marital home due to their low incomes, so they settled for weekly meetings in his room after his roommates left. His simple craftsman colleagues envied him for this opportunity they couldn’t achieve.
Voluntary Sexual Restrictions
Some societies impose voluntary sexual restrictions to preserve the purity of their race or identity. For instance, in Jordan, Circassians only marry within their community. In Qatar, I met a Circassian neighbour from Jordan whose Jordanian accent was indistinguishable from that of other Jordanians. Like any close neighbours, we would occasionally go to Friday prayers together, and he would invite my family and me for the famous mansaf meal. However, I noticed that all his close friends and his wife formed a Circassian group that adhered to their traditions even after more than twenty years abroad.
This practice can also be observed among the Druze community and is even more strictly enforced among the Yazidis in Iraq and Turkey, to the extent that mixed marriages can result in honour killings. I mentioned an example of this, including the story of a girl from the Iraqi town of Baashiqa, in my article Honor Crimes… Fleeing Toward Annihilation.

Marriage and the Right to Citizenship
German naturalization law allows a person married to a German citizen to obtain German citizenship under the following conditions: The marriage must be legally registered within the German legal framework, the marital relationship must be ongoing at the time of naturalization, and the marriage must have lasted for at least two years. Additionally, the German spouse must have held German citizenship for at least two years, and the couple must have lived together in Germany for at least three years. The foreign spouse must also meet the general naturalization requirements for foreigners with the right to naturalization.
In the Gulf countries, no legislation allows a foreigner married to a Gulf citizen to obtain citizenship.
However, a Gulf citizen married to a foreigner can help their spouse apply for citizenship.
According to Law No. (21) of 1989 on the regulation of marriage with foreigners, a woman married to a Qatari man can apply for Qatari citizenship under Article (8) of the same law, which states: “A woman who marries a Qatari, per the provisions of Law No. (21) of 1989 on the regulation of marriage with foreigners, becomes Qatari if she declares in writing to the Minister of the Interior her desire to acquire Qatari citizenship, and the marital relationship has lasted for five years from the date of the declaration. Suppose the marital relationship ends due to divorce or the husband’s death before the mentioned period, and the woman has one or more children from her husband. In that case, she may be granted Qatari citizenship if she continues to reside in Qatar until the completion of this period. The Emir issues a decision to grant her citizenship, and the Minister of the Interior may, based on public interest requirements, issue a decision to delay the wife’s entry into Qatari citizenship for a year, extendable for additional similar periods.”
From time to time, societal debates arise on social media platforms about the lack of rights for Gulf women to grant their citizenship to their children. Although children of Gulf women receive residency in their mother’s country during her presence, some are reluctant to grant their children her citizenship, arguing that children bear the father’s name, not the mother’s. These voices urge Gulf women to accept this situation as they were aware of these laws when they married a foreigner, and no one forced them to marry a foreigner.
Nationality of Children from Mixed Marriages in the Gulf
A Gulf father automatically passes his nationality to his children, but a Gulf mother does not. This leads to a lifelong identity struggle for the child, making childhood memories a psychological burden as they do not grant him the status of a regular citizen.
Qatar’s Law No. (38) of 2005 regarding Qatari nationality defines a Qatari in the first clause of Article (1) as “those who were settled in Qatar before 1930 and maintained their habitual residence there, retaining their Qatari nationality until the enactment of Law No. (2) of 1961.” The same article adds that a Qatari is also “someone proven to have Qatari origins, even if the conditions in the previous clause do not apply, provided an Emiri decision confirms this,” in addition to “those who had their Qatari nationality restored according to the provisions of the law.” Furthermore, a Qatari father passes his nationality to his children automatically, as stated in the following paragraph of the same article: “Anyone born in Qatar or abroad to a Qatari father as per the previous clauses.”

Conditions for Approval of Mixed Marriages in the Gulf
Most Gulf nationals, both men and women, face legal requirements when they wish to marry someone from a nationality outside the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. They typically need a permit for such a marriage, which can take several years. Consequently, some circumvent the law by marrying abroad and presenting the foreign marriage contract to local authorities for approval, a process that varies in duration.
In Qatar, Law No. (21) of 1989 on the regulation of marriage to foreigners states in Article 2 that Qataris, subject to the conditions set forth and with the approval of the Minister of Interior, may marry foreigners. The conditions include having valid social reasons for the marriage, an appropriate age difference, being free from marriage-preventing diseases, not having more than one wife at a time, not having previously divorced more than one wife, not having a criminal record involving freedom-restricting punishment in a felony, or a crime affecting honour or trustworthiness, and being financially capable of supporting the family. Similar conditions apply to foreign women marrying Qatari men, who must also be free from diseases and not have a criminal record or be banned from entering the country.
Article 3, as amended by Law 11/1994, exempts the following cases from the conditions stipulated in Clause (First) of Article 2 of this law: if the candidate for marriage holds nationality from one of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, if the candidate for marriage is the daughter of a paternal or maternal uncle or aunt of the Qatari who wishes to marry her, and if the candidate for marriage was born to a Qatari mother.
As for Qatari women, the law permits them to marry a foreigner according to Article (4), which states: “A Qatari woman – who does not belong to any of the categories specified in Article (1) of this law – may, with the approval of the Minister of Interior, marry a foreigner if there are social reasons that necessitate such a marriage. In this case, the legal guardian must approve the marriage. The foreign candidate for marriage must meet the following conditions: be free from diseases that prevent the marriage, not have been convicted of a felony or a crime involving honour or trust, not be listed in the banned entry list, and be financially capable of supporting the family.”
Violators of this law face the following measures outlined in Article (7) of the same law: “A marriage contract that is concluded in violation of this law after its enforcement is not recognized and cannot be registered, with all the legal consequences that follow. If the violator belongs to one of the first three categories specified in Article (1) of this law, the competent authority shall take the necessary legal measures to exempt him from his position, terminate his service, or transfer him to another job as appropriate, without prejudice to the disciplinary procedures stipulated in the applicable laws and regulations. If the violator is a student on a scholarship, his scholarship will be cancelled, and he will be required to repay all expenses and salaries. In all cases, the violator is deprived of the benefits of Law No. (1) of 1964 and Decree No. (7) of 1977.”
I know a Gulf friend who met an American expatriate working in his country and then married her in the United States. When they returned together with their three children, their marriage was not officially recognized for seven years, coinciding unplanned with their children’s entry into school. However, his children were granted residency in their father’s country despite the lack of immediate approval of their marriage.
However, the Sultanate of Oman has recently adopted a different stance, allowing its citizens to marry non-Gulf nationals without official state approval. This is by Royal Decree No. 23/2023 regarding the marriage of Omanis to foreigners, which repealed Royal Decree No. 58/93 in its first article. The second article adds that the provisions of this decree must not violate Islamic law, public order, or any law or royal decree that prohibits marriage to a foreigner as a condition for holding certain important or special public positions or continuing in such positions.
The Homeland is a Past Action
In most countries, your grandparents grant you the right to claim citizenship, but your grandchildren of another nationality cannot support you towards the same goal!
Even though the grandparents are a past that has gone, and the grandchildren are a future that has arrived.