YEMEN

In 1999, an amendment to Yemen's Personal Status Law removed the minimum age for marriage of 15, which applied to both girls and boys. The amendment states that a marriage contracted by a girl's guardian is valid, and that consummation of the marriage is not permissable until the girl is physically capable of sexual intercourse. The Yemeni government's Sharia Legislative Committee has blocked attempts to raise the marriage age to 15 or 18.