According to UNICEF, Pakistan is home to nearly 19 million child brides. Although the country has made progress in reducing child marriage in recent years, UNICEF warns that the 2022 monsoon floods could reverse those gains and trigger an 18% increase in child marriage. As reported by Al Jazeera, worsening poverty and displacement fueled by climate change has given rise to forced child marriage—a phenomenon now known as “monsoon brides.”

Lost childhoods

Asifa* was only 13 when her parents told her she was getting married. At first, she imagined celebrations, gifts, and pretty clothes. But her new reality was far from festive. Her husband borrowed 300,000 rupees ($1,070) to pay her family—a debt he has not been able to repay. The transaction was driven not by tradition but by economic desperation after the 2022 floods destroyed her family’s farmland in Main Nara Valley.

Now 15 and a mother, Asifa reflected on her lost childhood:

“I never truly understood what marriage would involve…I never realized that it would imply being with a man older than me, someone I didn’t know or choose.”

Samina*, also from Sindh, was just 13 when her mother arranged her marriage to a cousin she barely knew. Her father couldn’t work due to mental illness, and the family’s income disappeared when the 2010 floods destroyed the homes where her mother worked. Her wedding brought in 200,000 rupees ($714)—a financial lifeline that may have spared her younger sisters from the same fate.

Samina’s family hoped marriage would bring her a better life, but instead, she faced many hardships. Her husband, a laborer, struggled to find jobs, and the lack of work took a toll on his mental health. Samina took on sewing work to support their five children.

Read more