see table for details of changes in overall average age of first marriage smam in the region and in percentage of married girls under while these rates along with the figures indicated below may not be always consistent or exact they do nevertheless give a fair indication of the persistence of this problem and its overall prevalence moreover examining data on women aged between and years researchers found that per cent of women in this age group in yemen in per cent of women in this age group in syria in and per cent of women in this age group in morocco in were married before the age of eighteen furthermore the papfam research found that age differences and educational disparities between spouses in marriages involving minors were associated with divorce