annonocer: opportunity. prosperi. . optimism. byhl. . ♪u capital, which attracts young tourists in droves -- and this man shows them around. meet one of our berlin globals. mauritania's diawling national park is a wildlife hotspot -- but it didn't use to be like this. we find out about its transformation. but first we heaead to india o learn more about young girls and marriage, in which romance rarely plays a role.

forced marriages can be nothing short of devastating for the young girls involved. early marriage frequently means early motherhood, and that often means dropping out of school. this form of human rights abuse is not limited to a few countries, either -- it's 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 women's center in hyderabad. she tells us she's 19, but

doesn't 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 75-year-old 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 i'm they only told me on the day of far too young. reporter: india outlawed child marriage in 2006. but in muneera's case, as with many other women here, the marriage broker used falsified documents. a corrupt imam presided over the wewedding 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. muneera's daughter mushkan has never seen her father. muneera: i have suffered a great deal. whenenever i thinknk about i t still upsets me immensely. i don't want to cry here in front of my y daughter. mushkan shouldn't 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, muneerara hado move back home. her mother, rafia begum, tells us how m much she has s also suffered becausese of this stoy -- but shehe means h her daughs divorce. she still l doesn't see e anytg 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 daugughter ta sheikh -- and she got a a new house e and a smalall fortune. i was hoping for the same for muneera. that's why we married her off. reporter: muneera's family lives in a poor muslim area. many peoeople here believe tht selling their daughters off to the emirates will be their salvation. the women's rights group shaheen says that this happens in every third family here. every day, desperate girls show up at the women's 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 doesn't accept poverty as an excuse. shshe says the problem is that many muslim families view women

as property. jameela: it's 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 she's good-looking, very young, she's paid more. reporter: authorities in hyderabad have recently started to crack down on the trafficking of women and girls. earlier this year, polole arrested numerous people-- inclcluding indianan marriae brokers d d men fr thehe emirates seeking a chihild bri. many of themem are alreadydy mad and wawanted a seconond or thd wife, oror just a quicick thr. we meet ththe 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 didn't have official birth certificates or id's. haji: the girls now say they were 11 or 12 years old, but that's 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 hyderabad's assistant commissioner of police. he led the i investigation ande still can't belilieve how pares are willing to sell off their children -- many of them under age. mohammad: certain facts when we knowow -- what is this, how is this happening, how the parents are sending like this. maybe going to the school, if she's 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 don't 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 country's muslim minority the right to issue its own marriage

certificates. the islamic clerics who conduct the marriage ceremonies tell parents it's 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 don't want more girls to be sold off. the girls should be made aware of what's 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 -- b that mamay be about to change. >> good morning. >> good morning. reporter: these women are learning how to shoot. they're housewives, single mothers, and pensioners. they're 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. i've been teaching for about a year and a half, now i started out in the military, shooting rifles. reportrter: marchehelle tig washington's courses cater to african-american 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 shotot a gn before. but with the way things arare going now, it's s really necesey that we all learn how to protect ourselves. katherine: i think that t aftr the incident a few weeks ago in charlottesville, it just occurred to me that we can't 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. it's a factor cited by many of the women flocking to marchelle washington's courses. once they're at the shooting range, the first step is learning how to load a gun. the next step is firing with live ammunition. it's not as easy as marchelle makes it look. marchelle: don't 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 aren't gun enthusiasts -- they're women who are afraid. marchelle: that's all it takes. nobody's getting back up from that. that's right here in this breastbone right here. that means the lungs are collapsed.

he's not getting back up. reporter: so, how do participants feel? maxine: powerful -- and it's serious. i mean, it's a little scary. and i've fired -- it's not my first time coming to the range, but it's a little nerve-wracking. reporter: it's 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 african american gun association -- the first group of its kind for african-americans. 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 s specially designed r women. it's shopping g time for p pensr marcia. she wants advice on a handgun,

to bring along to the next firearms course. but can the ever-growing number of weapons really help in the fight againsnst racism? marchelle:e: it's especicially minorities. we can be easy targets because a lot of us dodon't have firears education. so i think with firearms education, we can learn how to legally defend ourselves and we won't be targets of hate crimes like we are now. reporter: marcia lives in rural gegeorgia. ththe women attetending the gugn classes say that in the southe stat of f the u.s., raracism hs 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 wasn't allowed to cross these train tracks because the other side was an all-white 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 thahat, but i think that, just again, with the culture changing, we can't say that's going to remain status quo. reporter: marcia meets up with her sisters.s. none of them have been subjected to actual physysical attackskst theyey feel threatened by unpleasant remarks. the past has left a deep legacy of fear. marcia will be booking a place on the next gun coursese, and bringing some friends with her. marica: oh yes, i'm taking it to my church, i'm going to put a bulletin out with a couple of retired airline women that we meet often. so, i'm on a crusade. reporter: these women are seeking reassurance from guns because e they no longer t truse govevernment to protect them ad 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. river on one side and the ocean mauritaniaon the other.by a

there's 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 1980's 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, thisis is where our ancestors lived, we're 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, it's a breeding ground for over 300 species of birds, including flamingoes. crocodiles live here, too. ththe warthog popopulation s flourishing because the animals are not hunted here. there's 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? bebecause the local l populatn does traditional work -- they harvest whatever nature provides. the local economy is based onn

fishing and fafarming. if there's no more water, there will be nothing left here. reporter: : locally y caught tia 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 rouound. 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 mid-1980's to supply mauritania, senel,l, gambi andnd

mamali wh freshwater.itit devl envinmnmen zeine: the constructn of thedae ecosystem. it was destroyed. the natural balance was destroyed, the balance between saltwater and freshwater. that wasn't all. the freshwater was blocked, and couldn't 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 frfreshwaterer are combined here, so it's a perfect habitat t for fish to spawn i. it's a protecteded area becaue these are three flood basins. so it's a perfect spot for

resting g anbreeding, not on for fish, but also f for bird. 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 couldn't harvest anything. but now nature has started to recover. the lotuses have returned, and we can collect their seeds again. reporter: they harvested some 60kikilos st y year -- enonougho 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 they're 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 daday taking a look at the nestg sites. zeinine: i love ththese birds, they're my favorite animals. they're beauautiful, and t thee alalso proof thahat the envirot is in good shahape. if t they're here, then we knw there's no environmental damage. and they don't 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 it's time to meet the berlin globals -- people from around the world who've made the german capital their home. > i live in b berlin five ys now.w. host: they y make berlie vibrant metropolis that t it i. wewe tell their stories, every wednesday on our f facebook ge, dw global society. today, our berlin global comes from slovenia. >> don't be alarmed. people know me. i'm the famous pub crawl guy. hey, what's up? i love the t-shirt. pub crawl is basically you making surure that t p people he a a good time when you take thm

to pubs anand various s bar. and with us, we alsoso take youo the club at the end. so, it's like a guided tour of the nightlife of b berlin, w whi know many berlrliners frown up, 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 it's considered vandalism. if they catch you putting up a poster on the wall, like this, the fine is around 70 euros because it's considered littering.

it's been done by a guy called sobr. i studied media and communication science at the university of ljubljana, which is somethingng you go to study whwhen you don't know what you want to study or what you want to do with y 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 moveve ot 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 you're cool enough to get into a club? what's up with that, man?

i mean, isn't t rlin all a abot 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 you're not cool enough and you have to walk in shame because you didn't get in, i was like, ah, man, that doesn't feel so nice. and the pub crawl is the exact opposite of that. everybody's welcome. it's the anti-berghain, so everybody is welcome. come. join us. have a party. even if you're not cool, or whatever.