Leaving her weekly workout class, Lama was shocked to discover she was no longer a Kuwaiti -- one of tens of thousands of people, mostly women, suddenly stripped of citizenship.

After her credit card payment for the class in Kuwait City was declined, she learnt her bank account was temporarily frozen because her nationality, acquired through marriage, had been revoked.

The mass revocations have been cast as part of a reformist agenda spearheaded by Kuwaiti emir Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who dissolved parliament and suspended parts of the constitution five months after taking power in December 2023.

His latest citizenship policy appears aimed at restricting nationality to those with blood ties to the tiny, oil-rich nation, reshaping Kuwaiti identity and potentially trimming its electorate after years of political crisis, analysts told AFP.