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