Hidden Connections: Climate Change & Child Marriage in Bangladesh

In this short documentary co-produced by Thomson-Reuters and Take Part, Bangladeshi villagers, like Brishti and Razia's parents, end up in the slums of Dhaka after floods wash out their homes and fields. It's expensive to support a girl in the city, as the family risks losing honor if she is molested or raped. The solution is to marry her off, as quickly as possible.

Brishti, a lively, bright-eyed girl, describes the urgency with which her father approached the question of her future. "It's like buying a chicken in the market and you have to cook it that night." Her father rustled up a husband, no questions asked. Only later did the family discover that he was already married, and furthermore required a ruinously expensive dowry. Meanwhile, Razia's parents are at odds on the question of whether to marry her off immediately - while her father sees no other choice, her mother is opposed.

School for Razia would have been free back in the village. In Dhaka it's plainly unaffordable. This documentary spotlights how disruptions of climate change have an impact on the most intimate of family decisions.