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Only recently are we starting to understand just how powerful and potentially intrusive the new DNA law, which is expected to fully go into effect late this year, will be. In [Kuwait] a wealthy nation where citizenship is passed down by bloodline and is extremely restricted, officials have been letting on about a mission creep that will give citizenship enforcement an unprecedented scientific grounding, and possibly leave thousands stripped of their nationalities.

“This is deeply, deeply disturbing because citizenship should be based on people’s ties to a society and a country,” Julia Harrington-Reddy, head of equality and inclusion at the Open Society Justice Initiative, told me. “Genetics is not valid grounds for citizenship, and it is certainly a terrible distortion of the whole idea of citizenship to say that genetics could be the sole determinant of citizenship.”

But in recent days, Kuwaiti officials have been suggesting that the DNA database will be used to do just that.