Bangladesh maintains minimum age of marriage for girls at 18 yrs
Xinhua, November 24, 2016 Adjust font size:
The Bangladeshi cabinet Thursday approved the draft of the "Child Marriage Prevention Act 2016" keeping the minimum age for girls' marriage unchanged at 18 years.
The cabinet, however, incorporated a provision paving the way for marriage of minor girls under 18 years in special circumstances.
After the meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, Cabinet Secretary M Shafiul Alam told journalists that the minor girls under 18 years can get married under special circumstances subject to clearance from the court and their parents' consent.
He said the minimum marriage age for men also remained unchanged at 21 years.
Bangladesh, which has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world despite a three-decade-old law which bans marriage for girls under the age of 18, in September 2014 proposed measures to lower the marriageable age for girls from 18 years to 16 years.
Over the last two years the plan to lower the legal marriage age for girls was met with huge protests. Endit