The rule in the law
The marriageable age for men and women is set at eighteen years. Article 15 of the Family Code states this directly.
An exception: when there are valid reasons, in exceptional cases (pregnancy, the birth of a child, emancipation), the khokim of the district or city at the place of the state registration of the marriage can reduce the marriage age at the request of the couple, but by not more than one year.
The conditions for a marriage
A marriage needs two conditions:
- the mutual voluntary consent of the two people who marry;
- that they reached the marriageable age.
Circumstances that prevent a marriage
- one side is already in another registered marriage;
- relatives in the direct line, and full and half brothers and sisters;
- an adoptive parent and an adopted child;
- a person whom the court recognised as legally incapable because of a mental disorder.
State registration
Under article 13 of the Family Code, a marriage is made in the civil registry office (FHDYo), and a marriage made by a religious rite has no legal meaning. A religious rite by itself creates no rights and no duties of spouses.