A tragic incident resulted in the deaths of a young mother and her two-year-old daughter after they fell from a residential building in eastern Erbil late Monday night. The circumstances surrounding the fall remain unclear.

The incident took place around 11:00 pm at the Atlantic City complex in the Kasnazan subdistrict, located on the Erbil-Koya road. The victims, a 27-year-old woman and her child, fell from the balcony of an eighth-floor apartment.

Authorities have yet to determine whether the fall was accidental, intentional, or if foul play was involved. The bodies were transferred to a forensics lab in Erbil shortly after the incident, but they have not been claimed at the time of this report.

There has been no official statement from authorities regarding the incident.

This tragedy sheds light on the broader issue of gender-based violence in the Kurdistan Region, which continues to face high rates of sexual violence, domestic violence, so-called honor violence, child marriage, and female genital mutilation. Many incidents of abuse go unreported due to societal stigma linking such cases to “family honor.”

In a related case, a 19-year-old woman suffered severe injuries after being thrown from a building in central Erbil’s Eskan Towers complex last November. Although she survived the fall, she was allegedly killed in her bed by family members five months later.

According to the Combatting Violence against Women Directorate, at least 30 women were killed in the Kurdistan Region in 2023.

Authorities urge anyone with information on Monday night’s incident to come forward as investigations continue.