MARRIAGE AGE IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
Marriage age has brought up in almost all countries. The Central African country Chad has the youngest average age of marriage at 19.2 years. Next come Niger and Mozambique 19.4 and 19.6 respectively. Joan of France, Duchess of Berry (age 12) was betrothed in a wedding contract at the age, 8-days-old. She was officially married at the age of 12 in 1476, to her cousin Louis, Duke of Orleans (age 14) This is historically a young age marriage. In Tanzania, Muslim and Hindu girls can marry at 12 as long as the marriage is not consummated until the girl reaches the age of 15.
According to the Pew Research Centre, at least 117 countries around the world, very young age marriage do happen. Pew looked at 198 countries and found that 192 of them have laws that specify when people can legally marry. Countries that do not specify minimum age for marriage are, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
An 18 year old in Australia can marry a 16 year old as long as they have judicial approval. In Iraq, Jamaica and Uruguay, children can marry with parental permission. In about 38 countries, there are different minimum ages for men and women, and almost always the girl is younger. In Sudan girls can marry at 10 and boys at 15. In Philippines Muslim boys can marry at 15 and girls at puberty. In many countries minimum age requirements are ignored. Despite fixing minimum ages for marriage at 16 and 18 for girls and boys, widespread forced early marriages are common in Afghanistan. Under age marriage is common in Albania too.
Average marriage age in some selected countries: Bangladesh 19.9, Nepal 20, Mali 20.4, Ethiopia 20.7, Pakistan 21.1 and Myanmar 22.3.
(Indebted to report by Alex Gray, Senior writer in World Economic Forum in September 2016 and worldatlas.com)
K V George
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