How Dhaka is battling to cool down extreme heat

Set in post-apocalyptic Dhaka, Nuhash Humayun's Moshari became the first Bangladeshi film to qualify for the Oscars last year. The thriller follows two sisters and their fight for survival, but for the film's co-producer, Bushra Afreen, the fiction felt closer to reality.

- Thaslima Begum

"There was so much that resonated with my own experiences," said Afreen, who grew up in Bangladesh, which has long been on the frontline of the climate crisis. "Our film was about many things, including a metaphor for how climate change can rob women and girls of their childhood and innocence, and push them into survival mode."

With temperatures in Asia rising at twice the global average rate, Afreen must now cope with the effects of extreme heat in her home city, Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Since the film's premiere, she has taken on a new role, the first of its kind in Asia: chief heat officer for Dhaka North.

The 30-year-old joins an all-female network of heat officers in cities around the world, including Miami; Athens; Melbourne; Santiago in Chile; Freetown in Sierra Leone; and Monterrey in Mexico.