In Lebanon, one out of 8 women (i.e. 13% of women of age 15-49) were married before reaching their 18th birthday. It’s less common than in other countries (in Egypt, for example, the percentage is 17%) but it is still a problem as underage marriages are often (though not always) forced. They carry risks of violence, poor health, sexual abuse, lower levels of education and poverty for women.

In Lebanon, there is no civil marriage, which means that there is no national law regulating underage weddings. They all depend on religious communities. While women officially reach the age of capacity when they are 17, they can still get married as young as 9 years old (in the Shia community) with the consent of their guardian. Unfortunately, it will be hard to enforce a legal minimum age of marriage without an agreement between all the religious leaders. Some NGOs such as Kafa are working hard on lobbying for a law to regulate this.

Source: Central Administration of Statistics, data of 2009