Hidden Connections, Part 3: Honor

Climate change is being felt around the world through floods, droughts, loss of agriculture, and natural disasters—and the full scope of human consequences is often unseen and devastating.

Among them: the phenomenon of climate change and its link to child marriage.

Environmental disasters are deepening poverty for families around the world. Many of them are becoming refugees in their own country, forced to flee because of loss of housing, income, and access to food and water. In rural Bangladesh, for example, storms and floods are destroying homes in villages and pushing families to migrate to the capital, Dhaka, where they face unbearable living costs and tuition. Many families find they can no longer support their daughters and turn to early marriage as a solution.

In Hidden Connections, two young girls and their families in Dhaka struggle under these very circumstances. Brishti, 14, works in a garment factory and has been forced into an early marriage. Razia, 14, works as a maid and is being pressured to marry by her father because he can’t afford to support her.