During the 20th century, most Middle Eastern countries followed the Ottoman precedent in defining the age of proficiency, while increasing the minimum age to 15 or 16 for boys and 15 to 16 for girls. A marriage that has not yet reached the age of majority requires the consent of a judge and the child`s legal guardian. Egypt has departed from this pattern by setting age limits of 18 for boys and 16 for girls, without distinguishing between jurisdiction to marry and the minimum age. [292] “We do this so that they have time to study and progress. The country is making this decision for its daughters,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after the law banning child marriage was introduced in Parliament on Tuesday. The action comes more than a year after he said in an Independence Day speech that the government was considering raising the legal age of marriage for women. Legal support, she says, can help girls convince their parents to provide them with higher education and put them on the path to financial independence. Raising the legal age of marriage would mean that people between the ages of 18 and 21 who wish to marry would become criminals, the report says. In France, until the French Revolution, the age of marriage was 12 for women and 14 for men. The revolutionary legislation of 1792 raised the age to 13 for women and 15 for men. Under the Napoleonic Code of 1804, the age of marriage was set at 15 for women and 18 for men. [31] In 2006, the age of marriage was raised to 18 for both women and men. In jurisdictions where the age is not equal, the age of marriage for women is more often two or three years lower than that for men.

In contrast, when girls under 18 flee, parents often use India`s child marriage law for revenge, according to a report by the Legal Resource Group Partner for Law in Development. The report noted that most prosecutions under the law are cases brought by parents against their daughters` romantic relationships with a person of their choice – for example, criminal proceedings against the girl`s husband. Therefore, the solution to the problems that the proposed amendment seeks to address could be to improve girls` education, implement awareness-raising programmes on the importance of education in communities where women`s education rates are low, and sensitize young students of both sexes to the importance of individual financial stability and the dangers of teenage pregnancy. The first recorded age of consent law in England was 800 years ago. The age of consent in question is linked to the rape law and not to the right to marry, as is sometimes misunderstood. In 1275, as part of the Rape Act, the Statute of Westminster 1275 criminalized in England the “rape” of a “virgin in old age”, with or without her consent. Lawyer Sir Edward Coke interpreted the phrase “within age” to mean the age of marriage, which was 12 at the time. [18] A 1576 law was created with harsher penalties for the devastation of a girl, for which the age of consent was set at 10. [19] Under English common law, the age of consent outside the rape law was 10 or 12 and rape was defined as forced sexual intercourse with a woman against her will.

To convict a man of rape, both violence and lack of consent had to be proved, except in the case of a girl under the age of consent. Since the age of consent applies in all circumstances, not just physical assault, the law also prohibits a minor girl (under 12 years of age) from consenting to sexual activity. There was one exception: the acts of a man with his wife (women over 12), to which the rape law did not apply. [20] Lawyer Sir Matthew Hale said both rape laws were valid at the same time. [21] In 1875, the Offence Against the Persons Act raised the age in England to 13; A sexual act with a girl under the age of 13 was a crime. [22] The minimum age of 12 and 14 was eventually incorporated into English civil law. By default, these provisions became the minimum age of marriage in colonial America. [10] Marriages took place, on average, a few years earlier in colonial America than in Europe, and much higher proportions of the population eventually married. Community studies suggest an average age of marriage of about 20 for women in the early colonial period and about 26 for men. [29] In the late 19th century, throughout the 20th century, the United States began to slowly raise the legal age at which individuals were allowed to marry. Age restrictions have been revised upwards, as in most developed countries, so that they are now between 15 and 21 years old. [10] Last year, about 100 civil society organizations submitted a report to the Working Group to verify the age of marriage.

It was called “Young Voices” and included the views of nearly 2,500 children, adolescents and adolescents who raised several concerns, including an increase in female foeticide when the age of marriage is raised to 21. As for the issue of postponing marriages until the age of 21, this seems to happen even without a legal mandate. In recent decades, data show an upward trend in the age at which women marry. The average age of a bride at marriage was 22.3 years in 2018, up from 18.3 years in 2001. Another argument against the proposal is that some girls from particularly conservative, regressive and patriarchal families escape the clutches of their families by deciding to marry a person of their choice after reaching the age of 18. As a result of the proposed amendment to the law, these girls will have to wait another three years; This period could be abused by families and the wider community to threaten and control these girls. Another concern is that women currently of legal age of 18 have been forced to marry by their families against their will or have not been allowed to be with those they loved and wanted to marry. However, as the legal age is now 21, girls will not be able to marry as soon as possible after their choice, and they will be forced to live with their controlling and intrusive families for an extended period of time. This time could also be abused by patriarchal families to restrict and control their activities. In this context, there is also no guarantee that raising the legal age limit will enable more families to provide education for girls. Jews follow the law of the country in which they live.

In modern Israel, the general age of marriage is 18 for both men and women, but with judicial approval, 16-year-old men and women can marry. Until recently, the minimum age of marriage for women was lower than that for men in many countries, based on the assumption that women mature earlier than men. This law has been considered by some to be discriminatory, so that in many countries the age of marriage for women has been raised to that of men. The age of marriage as a right is generally the same as the age of majority, which is 18 in most countries. However, in some countries the age of majority is less than 18, while in others it is 19, 20 or 21. In Canada, for example, the age of majority in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut is 19, and marriage before age 19 in these provinces requires parental or court consent (see Marriage in Canada). In the United States, for example, the age of majority is 21 in Mississippi and 19 in Nebraska and requires parental consent. In many jurisdictions in North America, minors are legally emancipated through marriage. [42] The 55 Parties to the 1962 Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registration of Marriages have agreed to legislate on a minimum age for marriage to override customary, religious, and tribal laws and traditions. If the age of marriage according to the law of a religious community is lower than that provided for by the law of the country, the law of the State prevails.