Editing Child marriage (section)

==Religious norms and laws==
Most religions practiced throughout history have established a minimum age for marriage.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} Christian [[canon law]] forbade the marriage of a girl before the onset of puberty.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Burn, Richard |author2=Tyrwhitt, Robert |author3=Phillimore, Robert | title = The Ecclesiastical Law |location= London |publisher= Sweet Stevens & Norton |volume= 4 | page = 54}}</ref> Within the [[Catholic Church]], before the [[1917 Code of Canon Law]], the minimum age for a dissoluble betrothal (''{{lang|la|[[sponsalia de futuro]]}}'') was seven years in the {{linktext|contractee}}s. The minimal age for a valid marriage was puberty, or nominally 14 for males, and 12 for females.<ref name="Rock1907">{{Catholic|inline=1|title=Canonical Age|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01206c.htm|first=P. M. J.|last=Rock|volume=1}}</ref> The 1917 Code of Canon Law raised the minimal age for a valid marriage to 16 for males, and 14 for females.<ref name="Bachofen1920">{{cite encyclopedia|location=St. Louis, MO; London|publisher=B. Herder book|encyclopedia=A commentary on the new code of the canon law|last=Bachofen|first=Charles A.|title=A commentary on the new Code of the canon law. V.5. |series=New Code of canon law, A commentary on the |edition=2nd rev.|volume=5|year=1920|lccn=19004568|at=c. 1067|hdl=2027/wu.89088314570}}</ref> The [[1983 Code of Canon Law]] maintained the minimal age for a valid marriage at 16 for males and 14 for females.<ref name="CIC1983">{{cite encyclopedia|location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Canon Law Society of America |encyclopedia=Code of canon law: new English translation |version=IntraText |year=1999 |orig-year=©1998 |isbn=978-0-943616-79-7 |author=Catholic Church |title=Codex Iuris Canonici |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_INDEX.HTM |via=Vatican.va |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080220062727/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_INDEX.HTM |archive-date=2008-02-20 }}</ref>{{rp|at=[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_P3Y.HTM c. 1083 §1]}}{{efn|name=CIC|While canon 1083 of the [[1983 Code of Canon Law]] sets the minimum age for a valid marriage at 16 for males and 14 for females,<ref name="CIC1983"/>{{rp|at=[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_P3Y.HTM c. 1083 §1]}} canon 97 defines a person younger than 18 years of age as a [[Minor (law)|minor]] and subject to parental authority.<ref name="CIC1983"/>{{rp|at=[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__PC.HTM cc. 97 §1, 98 §2]}} The authorization of the [[local ordinary]] must precede the celebration of the marriage of a minor if the marriage "cannot be recognized or celebrated according to the norm of civil law" or if the parents of a minor are "unaware or reasonably opposed".<ref name="CIC1983"/>{{rp|at=[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P3W.HTM c. 1071 §1,2° and 6°]}} Each [[conference of bishops]] can "establish a higher age for the licit celebration of marriage".<ref name="CIC1983"/>{{rp|at=[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P3Y.HTM c. 1083 §§1–2]}} Canon 1072 requires that pastors discourage "marriage before the age at which a person usually enters marriage according to the accepted practices of the region."<ref name="CIC1983"/>{{rp|at=[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_P3W.HTM c. 1072]}} [[Edward N. Peters]] explains that canon 1083 "authorized episcopal conferences to recognize the concrete circumstances of marriage in their own territories and to raise the ages for licit marriages within a given nation" to more than the minimum age for a valid marriage.<ref name="Peters1996">{{cite journal |last=Peters |first=Edward N. |date=22 June 1996 |title=Too young to marry |journal=America |volume=174 |issue=20 |pages=14–16 |issn=0002-7049}} Reprinted in {{cite web |last=Peters|first=Edward|title=Too young to marry|publisher=canonlaw.info|url=http://www.canonlaw.info/a_tooyoung.htm |access-date=2015-09-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060221153117/http://www.canonlaw.info/a_tooyoung.htm |archive-date=2006-02-21|url-status=live}}</ref> Other canons that regulate marriage in general also apply, for example persons "who lack the sufficient use of reason" or "who suffer from a grave defect of discretion of judgment concerning the essential matrimonial rights and duties mutually to be handed over and accepted" "are incapable of contracting marriage."<ref name="CIC1983"/>{{rp|at=[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_P3Z.HTM c. 1095]}}}} English [[Canon law|ecclesiastical law]] forbade the marriage of a girl before the age of puberty.<ref>Richard Burn, Robert Tyrwhitt and Robert Phillimore, ''The Ecclesiastical Law'', Volume 4, Sweet Stevens & Norton (London), page 54.</ref>

[[Judaism|Jewish]] [[Halakha|halakhists]] and [[rabbi]]s prohibit a father from betrothing a daughter while she is still a minor.<ref name=friedman80/><ref name="Kiddushin 41a.8">{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org.il/Kiddushin.41a.8?lang=en|title=Kiddushin 41a.8 – sefaria.org|access-date=2024-01-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Shulchan_Arukh%2C_Even_HaEzer.43.1?lang=en|title=Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 43.1-2 – sefaria.org|access-date=2024-01-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Shulchan_Arukh%2C_Even_HaEzer.35.6?lang=en|title=Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 35.6 – sefaria.org|access-date=2024-01-24}}</ref> A girl can be betrothed when she becomes a young woman ({{langx|he|נַעֲרָה|na'arah}}), which may defined as a girl aged 12-12½ or one who has begun puberty.<ref>{{cite web |title=Daf Shevui to Ketubot 36a:3 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Daf_Shevui_to_Ketubot.36a.3?ven=Daf_Shevui&lang=bi |website=www.sefaria.org |access-date=26 January 2024}}</ref><ref name="Kiddushin 41a.8"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/952875/jewish/Ishut-Chapter-Two.htm|title=Ishut - Chapter Two - Chabad.org}}</ref> In exceptional cases, such as during exile and persecution, girls aged 4-13 years may be betrothed by their fathers.<ref name="MAJORITY – JewishEncyclopedia.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10310-majority|title=MAJORITY – JewishEncyclopedia.com|access-date=2016-07-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QbUXAQAAMAAJ&q=ketannah | title = Beiträge zur jüdischen Altherthumskunde, Band 2 | last1=Lőw | first1=Leopold Lőw | pages=170, 175, 176 | year=1969 | publisher=Gregg | isbn = 9780576801270 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Shulchan_Arukh%2C_Even_HaEzer.37.8?lang=en|title=Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 37:8 – sefaria.org|access-date=2024-01-24}}</ref> [[Erusin|Betrothal by intercourse]] is forbidden and punishable by lashing.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Shulchan_Arukh%2C_Even_HaEzer.26.4?lang=en|title=Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 26:4 – sefaria.org|access-date=2024-01-24}}</ref> The [[Talmud]] states that, "those who marry girls who are not yet capable of bearing children" will "delay the coming of the [[messiah]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ph.yhb.org.il/en/14-05-10/|title=The Age of Marriage for Women – Peninei Halakha|access-date=2024-01-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Niddah.13b.5-7?lang=en|title=Niddah 13b.5-7 – sefaria.org|access-date=2024-01-24}}</ref> A wide age gap between spouses, in either direction, is advised against.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org.il/Yevamot.44a?lang=en|title=Yevamot 44a – sefaria.org|access-date=2024-01-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org.il/Yevamot.101b?lang=en
|title=Yevamot 101b – sefaria.org|access-date=2024-01-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org.il/Avot_D'Rabbi_Natan.23.4?lang=en|title=Avot D'Rabbi Natan 23:4 – sefaria.org|access-date=2024-01-24}}</ref> Marrying one's young daughter to an old man was declared as reprehensible as forcing her into prostitution.<ref name="Sanhedrin 76a.23-25">{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.76a.23-25?lang=en
|title=Sanhedrin 76a 23-25 – sefaria.org|access-date=2024-01-24}}</ref> The ideal age at which a man should marry is 18. Before this age, he should spend his time studying and getting his life in order.<ref name="jewishencyclopedia.com"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://ph.yhb.org.il/en/14-05-07/|title=The Age of Marriage for Men – Peninei Halakha|access-date=2024-01-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Sotah.44a.6?lang=en|title=Sotah 44a.6 – sefaria.org|access-date=2024-01-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Pirkei_Avot.5.21?lang=en|title=Pirkei Avot 5.21 – sefaria.org|access-date=2024-01-24}}</ref>

There is no minimum marriage age defined in traditional [[Islamic law]]; the legal discussion of this topic is centered primarily on women's physical maturity. Classical [[Fiqh|Sunni jurisprudence]] allows a father to contract a marriage for his underaged daughter. The appropriate age for consummating the marriage, which could occur several years after signing the marriage contract, was to be determined by the bride, groom, and the bride's guardian since medieval jurists held that the age of fitness for intercourse was too variable for legislation.<ref name=brown-islam>{{Cite book|first=Jonathan A.C. |last=Brown| author-link = Jonathan A.C. Brown | year=2015 | title=Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy|publisher=Oneworld Publications (Kindle edition)|pages=3090–3110 (Kindle locations)}}</ref> This was based in part on the precedent set by the Islamic prophet [[Muhammad]], as described in the [[hadith]] collections considered to be authentic by Muslims. According to these sources, Muhammad married [[Aisha]], his third wife, when she was about six,{{efn|some sources suggest age at marriage as six and some as seven, see Denise Spellberg (1996), Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of 'A'isha Bint Abi Bakr, Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|978-0231079990}}, pp 39–40}} and consummated the marriage when she was about nine.{{efn|Most sources suggest age at consummation as nine, and one that it may have been age 10; See: [[Denise Spellberg]] (1996), ''Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of 'A'isha Bint Abi Bakr'', 
[[Columbia University Press]], {{ISBN|978-0231079990}}, pp. 39–40;<br /> The [[Ahmadiyya]] sect has published the opinion of Pakistani writer [[Muhammad Ali (writer)|Muhammad Ali]] that [[Sahih al-Bukhari]] is inauthentic; Ali argued that Aisha may have been a teenager.{{cite book|last1=Ali|first1=Muhammad|author1-link=Muhammad Ali (writer)|title=Muhammad the Prophet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=od6dAQKgK-YC&pg=PT150|year=1997|publisher=Ahamadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam|isbn=978-0913321072}}<br />However, Ahmadiyya sect views about Islam and its history are widely disputed by mainstream Islam. See: Siddiq & Ahmad (1995), ''Enforced Apostasy: Zaheeruddin v. State and the Official Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan, Law & Inequality'', 14: pp. 275–284.}}{{efn|See:
* L. Ahmed, ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3174138 Women and the Advent of Islam]'', Signs, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Summer, 1986), pp. 677–678;
* Cynthia Gorney, "Too Young to Wed – The secret world of child brides", ''National Geographic'', June 2011, quote: "'If there were any danger in early marriage, Allah would have forbidden it,' a Yemeni member of parliament named Mohammed Al-Hamzi told me in the capital city of Sanaa one day. 'Something that Allah himself did not forbid, we cannot forbid.' Al-Hamzi, a religious conservative, is vigorously opposed to the legislative efforts in Yemen to prohibit marriage for girls below a certain age (17, in a recent version), and so far those efforts have met with failure. Islam does not permit marital relations before a girl is physically ready, he said, but the Holy Koran contains no specific age restrictions and so these matters are properly the province of family and religious guidance, not national law. Besides, there is the matter of the '''Prophet Muhammad's beloved Ayesha—nine years old, according to the conventional account, when the marriage was consummated.'''"}} Some modern Muslim authors and Islamic scholars, such as [[Ali Gomaa]], who served as the [[Grand Mufti of Egypt]], doubt the traditionally accepted narrative and believe based on other evidence that Aisha was in her late teens at the time of her marriage.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Jonathan A.C. |last=Brown| author-link = Jonathan A.C. Brown | year=2015 | title=Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy|publisher=Oneworld Publications (Kindle edition)|pages=3200 (Kindle location)}}</ref> As a general rule, intercourse was prohibited for girls "not able to undergo it," on the grounds of potential physical harm. Disputes regarding physical maturity between the involved parties were to be resolved by a [[Qadi|judge]], potentially after examination by a female expert witness.<ref name=brown-islam/> The [[Ottoman family law|1917 Codification of Islamic Family Law]] in the [[Ottoman Empire]] distinguished between the age of competence for marriage, which was set at 18 for boys and 17 for girls, and the minimum age for marriage, set at 12 for boys and 9 for girls. Marriage below the age of competence was permissible only if proof of sexual maturity was accepted in court, while marriage under the minimum age was forbidden. During the 20th century, sharia-based legislation in most countries in the Middle East followed the Ottoman precedent in defining the age of competence, while raising the minimum age to 15–16 for boys and 13–16 for girls.<ref name=EI2-8-29/> In 2019, [[Saudi Arabia]] raised the age of marriage to 18.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.premiumtimesng.com/entertainment/naija-fashion/369729-saudi-arabia-bans-under-18-marriage.html|title = Saudi Arabia bans under 18 marriage|date = 24 December 2019}}</ref>

In [[Hinduism]] the [[Vedas]], specifically the [[Rigveda]] and [[Atharvaveda]], have several verses that indicate girls were only to be married long after attaining puberty.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nagi |first=B. S. |title=Child Marriage in India: A Study of Its Differential Patterns in Rajasthan |date=1 January 1993 |publisher=Mittal Publications |isbn=978-81-7099-460-2 |page=6 |language=en}}</ref> However, during the [[Vedic period]], there is indication that girls were married before attaining and also during puberty.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nagi|first=B. S.|title=Child Marriage in India: A Study of Its Differential Patterns in Rajasthan|date=1 January 1993|publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=978-81-7099-460-2|page=6|language=en}}</ref> Some early [[Dharmaśāstra]], which are secondary texts (''Smritis'') to the Vedas (''Srutis''), also state that girls should be married after they have attained puberty,<ref>{{cite book|last=Singh|first=Upinder|title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century|publisher=Pearson Education India|year=2008|page=420}}</ref> while some Dharmaśāstra texts extend the marriageable age to before puberty.<ref>{{cite book| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=GW5Gx0HSXKUC&pg=PA420| title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |first=Upinder |last=Singh |year=2008 |publisher=Pearson Education India|page=420| isbn=9788131716779 }}</ref> It should be understood that Smritis are descriptions of recommended laws for the times and Vedas are the ultimate authority. Nonetheless, Smritis were often followed by society until they were revised or amended, similar to constitutions or other forms of law.

In the [[Manusmriti]],<ref>Donald Davis (2010), The Spirit of Hindu Law, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-0521877046}}, page 14</ref> a father is considered to have wronged his daughter if he fails to marry her before puberty and if the girl is not married in less than three years after reaching puberty, she can search for the husband herself.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xp35-8gTRDkC&pg=PA113|title=Megasthenes and Indian Religion: A Study in Motives and Types|author=Allan Dahlaquist|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|pages=113–114|isbn=9788120813236|date=31 December 1996}}</ref> However, in modern India, the minimum age of marriage is 21 years for males and 18 years for females as per both the [[Hindu Marriage Act]] and the [[Special Marriage Act]]. The [[Hindu Marriage Act]] is applicable and valid for all Hindus including Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs who altogether form more than 83% of Indian population.

By the beginning of the 21st century, most countries had enacted laws establishing the general [[Marriageable age|minimum age for marriage]] at 18 years. However, in many of these countries, some exceptions allowed marriage before this age with the consent of the parents and/or by court decision. In some countries, a religious marriage is still recognized by the state authorities, while in others, a registered civil marriage is mandatory.