ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A young mother and her two-year-old daughter died after falling from a residential building in eastern Erbil on late Monday, with the circumstances leading to the fall yet unclear. The incident occurred at around 11:00 pm at Kasnazan subdistrict’s Atlantic City complex on Erbil-Koya road. The woman, 27, and the child had fallen from the balcony of an apartment on the eighth floor. It is not yet clear whether the fall was accidental, intentional, or if they had been thrown off. The bodies were reportedly transferred to a forensics lab in Erbil a few hours later, but they have not been claimed as of the writing of this article. There has been no comments from relevant authorities on the incident. The Kurdistan Region suffers from high rates of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, domestic violence, so-called honor violence, child marriage, and female genital mutilation. Countless incidents of abuse go unreported on a yearly basis due to the stigma of linking such cases to “family honor” by the society’s conservative-majority population. A 19-year-old woman was severely injured after being thrown off a building in central Erbil’s Eskan Towers complex in November. She survived the fall, but was killed in her bed around five months later, allegedly by members of her family. At least 30 women were killed in the Kurdistan Region in 2023, according to the Combatting Violence against Women Directorate.
