Early motherhood, and that often means dropping out of school. This form of human rights abuse is not limited to a few countries, either its a global issue. In fact, around 700 million women and girls alive today were married off before they were 18. And more than a third were not even 15. The world leader when it comes to child brides is india. The u. N. Estimates that nearly half of all indian women are married off before they are 18. Reporter this is muneera khan, at work in a Womens Center in hyderabad. She tells us shes 19, but doesnt know exactly when she was born. Muneera was only 11 years old when her parents sold her for 50,000 rupies the equivalent of 800 euros. Muneera no one asked me. My relatives came together and decided to marry me off to a 75yearold man from oman. They only told me on the day of the wedding. When i saw the old man, all i could do was cry. I tried to protest and said im they only told me on the day of far too young. Reporter india outlawed Child Marriage in 2006. But in muneeras case, as with many other women here, the marriage broker used falsified documents. A corrupt imam presided over the wedding ceremony. Muneera was forced to go with the old man. For three weeks he sexually abused her in a hotel in hyderabad. Then he disappeared. When the man was informed that muneera was pregnant, he divorced her over the phone from oman. That was eight years ago. Until recently, the muslim practice of instant divorce was legal in india. Muneeras daughter mushkan has never seen her father. Muneera i have suffered a great deal. Whenever i think about it, it still upsets me immensely. I dont want to cry here in front of my daughter. Mushkan shouldnt have to ask why her mother is unhappy. That would upset her too much. Reporter muneera takes us to her parents. She had no choice pregnant and still a child herself, then a single mother, muneera had to move back home. Her mother, rafia begum, tells us how much she has also suffered because of this story but she means her daughters divorce. She still doesnt see anything wrong with the marriage itself. She only wanted her daughter to have a better life in the United Arab Emirates and says she had no idea the older man was only after sex. Rafia our neighbors also married off their daughter to a sheikh and she got a new house and a small fortune. I was hoping for the same for muneera. Thats why we married her off. Reporter muneeras family lives in a poor muslim area. Many people here believe that selling their daughters off to the emirates will be their salvation. The womens rights group shaheen says that this happens in every third family here. Every day, desperate girls show up at the Womens Center. Not all of them are about to be sold off abroad. Often they come because of everyday problems. Jameela nishat is the founder of shaheen. She doesnt accept poverty as an excuse. She says the problem is that many muslim families view women as property. Jameela its not just poverty. Because there was poverty earlier, also, but greed is one of the things especially as the girl was married many times. They were getting so much extra money. Supposing she was married one time, she may get 50,000. Second time, another 50,000. And if shes goodlooking, very young, shes paid more. Reporter authorities in hyderabad have recently started to crack down on the trafficking of women and girls. Earlier this year, Police Arrested numerous people including indian Marriage Brokers and men from the emirates seeking a child bride. Many of them are already married and wanted a second or third wife, or just a quick thrill. We meet the man who made the arrests possible. Haji khan himself spent years brokering illegal marriages to arab men. He shows us the hotels that cooperated with him. He warns us not to go there there would be trouble. He tells us trafficking the women and girls is easy, because until recently many indians didnt have official birth certificates or ids. Haji the girls now say they were 11 or 12 years old, but thats not true. In reality, they were already 18, i think. All right, maybe some were only 14 or 15, but only a few. In any case, we just forged the paperwork to show they were 24 or 25. The scheichs contacted us via middlemen. They then travelled to india officially for medical treatment in a hospital. Then they married the girls. Most of them left the girls behind. I knew the entire time that all this was illegal and i could end up in jail if the Police Caught me. Reporter at some point, he says he started to feel guilty. Haji khan went to the police and helped them crack a trafficking ring. The story is confirmed by hyderabads assistant commissioner of police. He led the investigation and he still cant believe how parents are willing to sell off their children many of them under age. Mohammad certain facts when we know what is this, how is this happening, how the parents are sending like this. Maybe going to the school, if shes not coming back at the given time, scheduled time, we will call the principal. Now the girl is being sent to the country where you dont have even free will. Reporter many people in the slums of hyderabad are deeply religious. The corrupt islamic clerics involved in trafficking child brides take advantage of their authority. The Indian Government gives the countrys Muslim Minority the right to issue its own marriage certificates. The islamic clerics who conduct the marriage ceremonies tell parents its all in accordance with the koran. Muneera khan has paid a bitter price for this cynicism. As a divorced single mother, she will have a hard time ever getting remarried. Muneera i want to share my story with everyone. I dont want more girls to be sold off. The girls should be made aware of whats in store for them. Reporter most of the women at the shaheen center have been traumatized. Here, at least, they are provided with safety, support, and care and given the chance to regain control over their lives. Host around 650 Million People around the world own a gun. Almost half of these private individuals are from the u. S. The right to bear arms is firmly anchored in the american constitution, but it remains a controversial topic. In 2014, firearms were responsible for the deaths of 34,000 people in the u. S. Two thirds of them were suicides. Who exactly decides to go out and buy a gun . In surveys, nearly a third of all u. S. Households have admitted to owning a pistol or rifle. The large majority of u. S. Gun owners are white 81 . And almost three quarters are men but that may be about to change. Good morning. Good morning. Reporter these women are learning how to shoot. Theyre housewives, single mothers, and pensioners. Theyre middle class, and most of them have ever held a gun before. Marchelle my name is marchelle tig washington. This is trigger happy firearm instruction, my company. Ive been teaching for about a year and a half, now i started out in the military, shooting rifles. Reporter marchelle tig washingtons courses cater to africanamerican women. Her workshops across the country are always fully booked. Lesson one Safety Training with dummy guns. It may look like fun, but the participants take it very seriously. Doris i have never shot a gun before. But with the way things are going now, its really necessary that we all learn how to protect ourselves. Katherine i think that after the incident a few weeks ago in charlottesville, it just occurred to me that we cant totally depend on Law Enforcement to protect us, to be there for us. Reporter the White Supremacists rally in virginia this summer confirmed for many that open racism remains widespread in the u. S. Its a factor cited by many of the women flocking to marchelle washingtons courses. Once theyre at the shooting range, the first step is learning how to load a gun. The next step is firing with live ammunition. Its not as easy as marchelle makes it look. Marchelle dont rush it. Focus. Inhale, exhale, squeeze. Reporter this participant got off to a good start. After her very first go, the target figure is riddled with holes. Everyone gets ten shots, and encouragement as well, if needed. These arent gun enthusiasts theyre women who are afraid. Marchelle thats all it takes. Nobodys getting back up from that. Thats right here in this breastbone right here. That means the lungs are collapsed. Hes not getting back up. Reporter so, how do participants feel . Maxine powerful and its serious. I mean, its a little scary. And ive fired its not my first time coming to the range, but its a little nervewracking. Reporter its all smiles for the souvenir photo. None of the women are great shots yet, but they do feel more confident. Marchelle tig washington belongs to the National AfricanAmerican Gun Association the first group of its kind for africanamericans. The Atlanta Branch alone has grown from 500 to 1000 members within two years, and 600 of them are women. And the industry is happy to supply them. Gun stores now also stock products specially designed for women. Its shopping time for pensioner marcia. She wants advice on a handgun, to bring along to the next firearms course. But can the evergrowing number of weapons really help in the fight against racism . Marchelle its especially minorities. We can be easy targets because a lot of us dont have firearms education. So i think with firearms education, we can learn how to legally defend ourselves and we wont be targets of hate crimes like we are now. Reporter marcia lives in rural georgia. The women attending the gun classes say that in the Southern States of the u. S. , racism has never really gone away it was just less visible. They fear the Trump Administration is empowering the wrong people, and that racism is even becoming acceptable again. Marcia still remembers the segregation era. As a child, she wasnt allowed to cross these train tracks because the other side was an allwhite community. Now, at the age of 65, she feels she needs a gun. Marcia the black woman, in a sense, has kind of escaped a large portion of that, but i think that, just again, with the culture changing, we cant say thats going to remain status quo. Reporter marcia meets up with her sisters. None of them have been subjected to actual physical attacks, but they feel threatened by unpleasant remarks. The past has left a deep legacy of fear. Marcia will be booking a place on the next gun course, and bringing some friends with her. Marica oh yes, im taking it to my church, im going to put a bulletin out with a couple of retired airline women that we meet often. So, im on a crusade. Reporter these women are seeking reassurance from guns because they no longer trust the government to protect them and Diawling National Park an undeniable paradise for birds. Nowhere else in west africa can you find so many different varieties of birds in such a small area. The park is located at the border between mauritania and senegal, around the senegal river delta. The region is highly vulnerable to climate change. Our reporter Julia Henrichmann went to find out more. Reporter year for year, the sea level here has been rising as locals can see with their own eyes. A growing number of them are having to leave their homes along the beach. The older generation still remembers what it used to look like here. Saliou half the village used to be here. There were houses even on this very spot before it was all flooded. There are probably remains of houses on the sea bed over there. Reporter the village in south mauritania is bordered by a river on one side and the ocean on the other. Theres very little infrastructure. But where are locals supposed to move to . Zeine el abidine works in the nearby Diawling National Park. He confirms the gravity of the situation. Zeine i spoke to an old man who told me that in the 1980s the ocean was two kilometers further back. Now look at the damage that the sea has done. The government is trying to ensure that people are relocated to a safer area, but the older generation refuses and says, this is where our ancestors lived, were not going anywhere. Reporter living from farming alone is increasingly difficult. Land is in short supply due to the ground becoming oversalted. With their livelihoods destroyed, people are having to move inland. But the Diawling National Park, 12 kilometers away, provides alternative sources of income. A few years ago it was home to far fewer animals. Today, its a breeding ground for over 300 species of birds, including flamingoes. Crocodiles live here, too. The warthog population is flourishing because the animals are not hunted here. Theres both freshwater and saltwater in the senegal river delta. Nature conservation makes sense here. Protecting the ecosystem also creates jobs. Zeine the goal of the park is to restore the ecosystem and fight poverty. Why fight poverty in this region . Because the local population does traditional work they harvest whatever nature provides. The local economy is based on fishing and farming. If theres no more water, there will be nothing left here. Reporter locally caught tilapia is hung out to dry in the open air. Many villages have no electricity, let alone refrigerators. Fishermen sell their fish across the country and even in neighboring senegal. Cheikh in the past, people here lived from farming, too. But really, fishing makes most sense. We can make a living from fishing all year round. We benefit from the lock and the basin there are lots of fish here. Reporter the abundance of fish is a recent development. 30 years ago the region was left ravaged by this dam built in the mid1980s to supply mauritania, senegal, gambia, and mali with freshwater. It devastated the natural environment. Zeine the construction of the dam completely destabilized the ecosystem. It was destroyed. The Natural Balance was destroyed, the balance between saltwater and freshwater. That wasnt all. The freshwater was blocked, and couldnt reach the national park. Reporter years later the problem was addressed with the construction of these locks built with the help of the German Kfw Development bank and the German Development agency giz. Samantha what it does is imitate ebb and flow salt water and freshwater are combined here, so its a perfect habitat for fish to spawn in. Its a protected area because these are three flood basins. So its a perfect spot for resting and breeding, not only for fish, but also for birds. Reporter the Park Authority has demarcated fishing zones and makes sure the fishermen respect spawning seasons. The freshwater in the basin has helped revive the local fauna, too. Lotuses have begun thriving again. Local women spend two to three hours a day in the water collecting seeds from the lotus stalks. Then they sort them, shell and dry them, and over a period of several weeks, turn them into couscous. Mariya after the dam was built, until last year we couldnt harvest anything. But now nature has started to recover. The lotuses have returned, and we can collect their seeds again. Reporter they harvested some 600 kilos last year enough to feed their families for months, and sell the excess. Another successful venture made possible by the park. Local craft traditions have also made a comeback. These women make jewelry theyre planning to sell. The Raw Materials come from the national park. Samantha these are tiny beads that they make from tree resin. And we help them extract the resin without destroying the trees. Reporter back in the delta, biologist Zeine El Abidine is out on the water almost every day taking a look at the nesting sites. Zeine i love these birds, theyre my favorite animals. Theyre beautiful, and theyre also proof that the environment is in good shape. If theyre here, then we know theres no environmental damage. And they dont make anything dirty. I love them. Reporter the Diawling National Park is home to the greatest concentration of birds in west africa. And in addition to rescuing animal habitats in the region, the conservation zone has also helped to secure human livelihoods. Host now its time to meet the berlin globals people from around the world whove made the german capital their home. I live in berlin five years now. Host they make berlin the vibrant metropolis that it is. We tell their stories, every wednesday on our facebook page, dw global society. Today, our berlin global comes from slovenia. Dont be alarmed. People know me. Im the famous pub crawl guy. Hey, whats up . I love the tshirt. Pub crawl is basically you making sure that the people have a good time when you take them to pubs and various bars. And with us, we also take you to the club at the end. So, its like a guided tour of the nightlife of berlin, which i know many berliners frown upon, but i think they should give it a chance at least once. If they catch you applying spray paint onto a wall, even a single time, the fine is around 7000 euros just for a one because its considered vandalism. If they catch you putting up a poster on the wall, like this, the fine is around 70 euros because its considered littering. Its been done by a guy called sobr. I studied media and communication science at the university of ljubljana, which is something you go to study when you dont know what you want to study or what you want to do with your life. I was basically staying with my parents until i decided, i want to move to berlin. So, i wanted to become an autonomous person and move out at the same time to another country. So one day i just got up and left. Why are there, like, certain people who decide if youre cool enough to get into a club . Whats up with that, man . I mean, isnt berlin all about being left wing and democratic . I never understood that, to be honest. When i did a couple of those walks of shame, when they tell you youre not cool enough and you have to walk in shame because you didnt get in, i was like, ah, man, that doesnt feel so nice. And the pub crawl is the exact opposite of that. Everybodys welcome. Its the antiberghain, so everybody is welcome. Come. Join us. Have a party. Even if youre not cool, or whatever. Host and thats all for today. Dont forget to send us your comments and views. Write to us at global3000 dw. Com, or on facebook. See you next time. Take care. 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