A Kurdish official stands beside a newborn baby in a Medina hospital after the child was born to a pilgrim from Khalifan following the completion of Hajj. The boy, named Mohammed, is the first Kurdish baby reported born in Saudi Arabia during this year’s pilgrimage season.
Kurdish woman gives birth in Saudi Arabia after completing Hajj pilgrimage
ERBIL — A Kurdish woman from Khalifan, a town within Erbil’s Soran autonomous administration, gave birth to a baby boy in Saudi Arabia after completing the Hajj pilgrimage, local officials said. The child, named Mohammed, is the first Iraqi Kurdish baby born in the kingdom during this year’s Hajj season.
Mullah Yousif Chomani, head of the Hajj and Umrah department in Soran, told 964media that the woman delivered her son at a hospital in Madinah. “She gave birth after completing the pilgrimage, and both the mother and baby are in good health,” he said.
Chomani said officials are working to arrange the family’s return to the Kurdistan Region once necessary medical and administrative procedures are completed. “This is the first Kurdish baby to be born in Saudi Arabia this year, and the child will need a temporary passport before returning home, which will take a few days to process,” he said.
Children born in Saudi Arabia to foreign nationals — including during religious pilgrimages — do not receive Saudi citizenship.
This year, 1,673,230 Muslims performed the Hajj pilgrimage, including 1,506,576 international pilgrims and 166,654 from within Saudi Arabia.