How the climate crisis fuels gender inequality
The climate crisis may be a collective problem, but its impacts do not fall equally. Women and girls often bear the heaviest burdens.
Bangladesh is considered an
“emergency hotspot” for girls’ rights according to humanitarian nonprofit Save the Children, which ranks countries with the highest risks that a girl will both be married as a child and face life-changing consequences from climate change.
The low-lying country is extremely vulnerable to the climate crisis. As the impacts of extreme weather push people further into poverty, and families become desperate to relieve some financial strain, the nonprofit says the risks of child marriage increase.
Twelve million girls are married before the age of 18 each year globally, according to Girls Not Brides. That is
23 girls every minute.
Marufa Khatun, from Satkhira in southwest Bangladesh, was married at 11 because her parents could no longer manage after cyclones and floods ripped through their community. Now 14, she is the mother of a 3-month-old baby. “I got married early because natural disasters are happening frequently now and our father cannot afford our expenses,” she told CNN.
Governments around the world have committed to
end child marriage by 2030. But a
recent analysis from Save the Children found that almost 9 million girls worldwide face extreme risk of climate disasters and child marriage every year.
