Not a young or wealthy male? Don't fall in love in Cambodia.

• A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.

Foreign men older than 50 or who make less than $2,500 per month can no longer marry Cambodian women, according to regulations introduced by Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs last month.

“If a 60-year-old man got married to a 20-year-old girl, what does it look like?” said Koy Kuong, the spokesman for the ministry, when asked to explain the regulations. “It looks like a grandfather and a granddaughter.”

Chou Bun Eng, chairwoman of the Cambodian government’s One Window Service for International Marriage, said the rules aim to prevent “fake marriages,” in which elderly men use marriage to obtain a free maid.

Mr. Kuong said the rules were introduced due to an increase in marriage applications from foreigners, notably South Koreans. Last year, Cambodia temporarily banned marriages to South Koreans after police caught a marriage broker bringing rural women to Korea.