The Kuwaiti Shiite identity and the debate over citizenship

Let us start by posing the following question: how do we imagine society and the state in Kuwait without the Shia groups? What if there were no Shia in Kuwait, would the issue of sub-identities and the national identity be resolved? And would Kuwait or the Gulf Cooperation Council countries enjoy democracy and full citizenship? Would the wall be able to protect society from political and social chaos, especially considering that the wall included the components of Kuwaiti society and protected them from external dangers and strengthened their internal relations from the early beginnings of the establishment of the civil state? Why did the wall of the civil state collapse when the nation-state was born and drafted a constitution that was considered the most modern and advanced in the region? And did the nation-state give society more immunity than the first, second, and third walls of the civil state? The author attempts to answer these complex and profound questions. Also, the choice of Shia groups in this study does not mean excluding other groups, whether sectarian, tribal, or ethnic. The failure observed in the study perhaps affected most of the groups that make up Kuwaiti society, which emphasizes the importance of conducting other studies that explore the strategies of these groups, their sub-identities, how their relationships with the national identity were built, and what existing areas of tension could explode at any historical juncture.