Pregnant woman dies after fall from balcony in Turkey, husband held

ANKARA – A heavily pregnant woman died after falling from the balcony of her home in western Turkey, with police detaining her husband, state news agency Anadolu reported on Aug 3.

The 35-year-old woman, who was eight months pregnant, died late on Aug 2.

A Sudanese national, she was living with her husband in a fourth-floor flat in the city of Bursa.

Her husband, 37, who was home at the time of the incident with their three-year-old daughter, was taken into custody with the police opening an investigation, it said.

The husband told the olice that his wife had jumped out of the bedroom window.

In his testimony, he told the police he first met his wife in Sudan and they had been married for five years.

He admitted to solvent abuse, saying the habit often caused fights, including one on the night of Aug 2.

Two neighbours also reported hearing sounds of a fight, Anadolu said.

Turkey does not publish figures on femicides, leaving the task to women’s organisations that collect data on murders and other deaths under suspicious circumstances from news reports.

Figures from We Will Stop Femicides show that in the first seven months of 2026, 215 women were killed or found dead in suspicious circumstances.

In 2025, 294 women were killed by men with another 297 dying in suspicious circumstances, such as falling from a balcony – which is frequently classed by the authorities as suicide or an unsolved death.

Since Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention in 2021 – an international treaty requiring signatories to promulgate laws aimed at preventing and prosecuting violence against women – rights groups have pointed to rising numbers of women dying after falls from balconies or windows. AFP