When 27-year-old Hamad set himself on fire in Kuwait in December, it sent shockwaves across the country.
The tiny, oil-rich Gulf state seems an unlikely setting for the kind of desperate circumstances that would push someone to carry out such an extreme act. But Hamad is a member of Kuwait's stateless Bidun.
Bidun is Arabic for "without" - without nationality, which for members of the community means facing restricted access to wider society; without status, meaning tougher paths to education, medical care and employment. And - tragically for Hamad and his family - without hope.
'Everything had closed in'
Seventeen kilometres (11 miles) outside Kuwait City, Sulaibiya is a world away from the upscale shopping centres and high-rise glass buildings of the capital.
Omar lives there with his parents, his 10 siblings and their families, in a modest five-bedroom house in a run-down housing project where many of the Bidun population have settled.
The 33-year-old is close to his youngest sibling, Hamad.
"He's the kindest person on the face of the Earth, he's quite naive, always smiling," Omar says.
But about a year ago the young man became withdrawn, shutting himself away in his room and refusing his brothers' attempts to take him out of the house.
Daily struggle
After Hamad finished primary school, he was unable to register at a public high school due to his Bidun status. His family lacked the means to have him privately educated.
The boy grew up watching his father and brothers earn a precarious living buying and selling cars; they would sell a car one month and struggle for another four.
He seemed to decide that was not the life he wanted. His brother says that his dream was to join the military.
But faced with limited opportunities, Hamad did what he could to get by, at first selling watermelon on the street until the local municipality caught him.
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