This includes Afghanistan, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen. In many countries where sex outside of marriage is illegal, the minimum age of marriage is lower for women than for men. It is common for courts to grant permission for girls to marry below the legal age. In Iran in 2010, for example, The Telegraph reported that as many as 42,000 children aged between ten and 14 were married, and 716 girls younger than ten had wed. In Jordan, 16-year-olds can consent to sex, while in Iraq they must be 18.
By contrast, Bahrain has the highest age of consent in the world, at 21.
