Half of the Gulf Arab states imposed an abrupt blockade on neighboring Qatar June 5, 2017, and ordered their citizens to exit the emirate within 14 days, leaving people across the region dumbstruck.

Among those instructed to "return home" forthwith were thousands of men and women who often had little connection to the blockading countries other than a Saudi, Emirati or Bahraini father. But nationality in the Gulf Cooperation Council has historically followed the male bloodline and those born from a Qatari mother and a foreign father are not automatically entitled to become Qatari.

But for many born from cross-national marriages, home is in Doha, where they have lived under the sponsorship of their mother for decades. Why would a blockade force them to leave, they wondered.

Although this unprecedented diplomatic crisis jeopardized the bedrock of the social construct of the Gulf countries, it could have triggered long-awaited progressive citizenship reforms for women. “We would have given Qatar a lot of credit for being the first to have moved forward,” said Rothna Begum, Middle East women’s rights researcher for Human Rights Watch.