Over 50? These Cambodian beauties are off-limits for marriage, even though they're more than 600 years old.

The Cambodian government recently outlawed all marriages between foreign men over 50 and Cambodian women of any age. Its stated reasons were to prevent trafficking and abuse. So it’s OK if you’re under 50, right? Wrong again. Foreigners who earn less than $2,550 USD per month are also excluded. That means a yearly salary of $30,600, pretty tough, for instance, if you’re a Westerner teaching school there. 

What this will do to the amount of foreign capital coming into Cambodia via foreign men is up to speculation, but it does mean that these men will have a great excuse not to be pressured into getting married: “Honey, why you not marry me?” “Sorry, cannot, your government forbids it.” 

WoWasis’ take? Yet another well-intentioned bad law that will have the opposite effect it had intended, namely getting less long-term income into many Cambodian women’s purses.