Age of Consent in Morocco: Article 484, Penalties, and Marriage Age

The age of consent in Morocco is 18. Article 484 of the Penal Code makes any sexual contact with a person under that age a crime, whether or not the minor appeared willing, and whether or not force was used.¹ But the age threshold is only half the story. Moroccan law also criminalizes all sex between unmarried people, so reaching 18 does not, on its own, make a sexual relationship legal.

How Article 484 Works

Article 484 covers any indecent act, completed or attempted, against a person under 18. It applies regardless of the minor’s gender and carries two to five years in prison.¹ The minor’s stated willingness has no legal weight. Age itself is the deciding fact, so there is no close-in-age defense and no exception for relationships between two teenagers. Moroccan courts have applied Article 484 to conduct as minor as kissing a person under 18.

Penalties When the Victim Is a Minor

The Penal Code separates indecent acts from rape, and the sentencing gap is wide.

Indecent act without violence against a person under 18 (Article 484): two to five years in prison.¹
Rape of an adult woman (Article 486): five to ten years.¹
Rape where the victim is under 18, disabled, or pregnant (Article 486): ten to twenty years.¹

Article 486’s definition of rape is narrow: it covers only a man’s act against a woman. The statute does not recognize male victims or assaults committed by women, a gap human rights organizations have repeatedly criticized.

Sex Between Unmarried Adults Is Also a Crime

Turning 18 does not open the door to lawful sex. Article 490 makes sexual relations between any two unmarried people of the opposite sex a criminal offense, punishable by one month to one year in prison.² It applies to Moroccan citizens and foreign nationals alike. Verbal consent between the parties changes nothing, because the state treats marriage as the only lawful basis for sexual intimacy.

Extramarital sex by a married person is handled separately under Article 491, with a penalty of one to two years, and generally requires a complaint from the wronged spouse before prosecution moves forward.² Article 490 cases involving unmarried people carry no such requirement and can be prosecuted whenever authorities learn of the conduct.

In practice, enforcement is usually complaint-driven. Police rarely investigate on their own, but when they do act, early-morning raids of private residences have been documented, with officers looking for shared bedding or belongings that suggest cohabitation. Convictions often end in probation, though imprisonment is legally available.

Same-Sex Conduct Under Article 489

Article 489 criminalizes sexual acts between people of the same sex, calling them “lewd or unnatural acts.” The penalty is six months to three years in prison and a fine of 200 to 1,000 dirhams.³ The law applies to men and women, and consent is not a defense. Morocco does not recognize gender identity changes and provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ individuals.

Marriage Age and the Judicial Exception

The Moudawana, Morocco’s Family Code, sets the legal marriage age at 18 for both men and women. Article 19 grants the capacity to marry to those who are “of sound mind and have completed eighteen full Gregorian years of age.”⁴ The 2004 code raised the threshold from 15.⁵

Article 20 gives a Family Affairs judge discretion to authorize a marriage below 18. The judge must issue a written decision explaining why the marriage is justified, after hearing the parents or legal guardian and either ordering a medical evaluation or a social inquiry.⁴ Article 21 requires the guardian’s consent, shown by signing the petition and being present when the contract is finalized; a judge can override a guardian’s refusal.¹ The judge’s decree granting a minor marriage cannot be appealed.

Judges approve most of these petitions. Reports indicate that over 16,000 child marriage requests were filed in 2024, with girls accounting for roughly 98 percent, and judges approved more than 64 percent. Child marriage rates in Morocco have risen since the 2004 reform, a trend widely attributed to how freely the Article 20 exception is granted.

What Foreign Visitors Should Know

Moroccan criminal law applies to everyone inside the country’s borders, and foreign tourists get no exemption from Articles 484, 489, or 490. The most common trap for visitors is Article 490’s prohibition on unmarried sex. Hotels sometimes ask for a marriage certificate when an opposite-sex couple checks in, especially when one partner is Moroccan. International chains tend to be more relaxed, but smaller establishments and riads may refuse an unmarried couple or report them.

Prosecutions against tourists are relatively uncommon but do happen, and they usually begin with a third-party complaint rather than proactive policing. The practical risk rises when one partner is a Moroccan citizen, because local family and social networks are more likely to report the relationship. A conviction under Article 490 can carry up to one year in jail, and even when the eventual sentence is probation, the arrest and legal process itself can mean days or weeks of detention abroad.

U.S. Federal Law Reaches Beyond Morocco

American citizens and permanent residents face a second layer of exposure. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2423, a person who travels to a foreign country and engages in sexual conduct with someone under 18 can be prosecuted in the United States, even if the conduct happened entirely overseas. The maximum federal sentence is 30 years.⁶ The statute covers completed acts, attempts, and conspiracies, and it uses the U.S. definition of 18 regardless of local law. The United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have similar extraterritorial laws, so the same risk applies to their nationals.

1
International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children. Morocco National Child Protection Legislation
2
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Morocco: Application of Adultery Laws, in Particular, of Article 490 of the Penal Code
3
U.S. Department of Justice. Application of Article 489 of the Penal Code – Morocco
4
Learning Partnership. The Moroccan Family Code (Moudawana) of February 5, 2004
5
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Child Marriage in the Middle East and North Africa – Morocco Country Brief
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2423 – Transportation of Minors