For Khaleeji women, citizenship is a paradox of simultaneous privilege and disenfranchisement. Citizenship in the Gulf is largely confined to nativist/tribalist economic privilege, and defines womanhood through religio-traditional and patriarchal lenses. Due to this tension, women who marry foreigners are perceived to be even more disadvantaged. Unable to pass on their citizenship, this exclusion dominates the discourse on citizenship and womanhood in the Gulf. Yet, marrying a foreigner is a right transgressively wrested from the patriarchal authority, and should be seen as an act of self-empowerment and emancipation. As such, I wish to propose a new lens by which to re-imagine exclusion as an avenue that allows for a subversive form of agency to emerge through which women can give their children the opportunity to escape the socio-political constraints of Gulf citizenship.