Post-Flood Desperation Brings Back Underage Marriages in Pakistan

Two years on from floods that devastated Pakistan, families desperate for income are selling off their daughters for marriage.

Transcript

00:00What would typically be a moment of celebration, a time of reluctance and fear for Pakistani

00:07teenager Mehtab Ali Shaikh, as she's married off against her will.

00:12I didn't want to get married. If I had gotten married, my father would have been very sad.

00:19I wanted to spend the rest of my life like this. I didn't want to get married.

00:27It's for her own good, her father says, as the family struggles financially, particularly

00:33since widespread flooding in 2022 devastated their village, a disaster that caused billions

00:40of dollars worth of damage across Pakistan, one of the costliest natural disasters in

00:45human history. Over 1,700 people died and millions were left homeless.

00:51I was very old at the time. My mother advised me to get married. I said yes, I'll get married.

00:58I'm poor, I'll get married. I'll get a job. I'll have a good life. I'll have a good life.

01:06The number of underage Pakistani girls being married off for money had been decreasing

01:11in the years leading up to the 2022 floods. Climate scientists say climate change is making

01:17natural disasters like flooding more common, and the economic insecurity that followed

01:22from 2022 is bringing the practice back.

01:25I'm old. I've lost my home. I've lost everything. I don't know where to go. I don't have anything.

01:34I don't want to get married. I'm very old. I'm poor. I don't have a mother. I don't have

01:40a father. I'm poor. I don't know where to go.

01:43I'm old. I'm poor. I don't have a father. I don't have a mother. I'm poor. The world

01:50is not as good as it used to be. I'm old. I've lost everything. I don't have a father.

01:56I don't have a mother. I don't have a father. I'm poor. I don't have a mother. I'm poor.

02:01It's an issue local human rights groups say is consuming villagers.

02:05years.

02:26Two years after floodwaters swept away much of Pakistan's already strained resources,

02:32domestic desperation is striking hardest at the most vulnerable.

02:36And for girls like Metab, entering these marriages is the only way to keep food on the table.

02:42Justin Wu and Rhys Ayres for Taiwan Plus.