From The Christian Science Monitor
Hipstershaadi.com, which has users from Washington to London to Cairo, allows young Muslims to find their match on their own terms.
By Shira Rubin, Correspondent / December 21, 2013
Ana, a Palestinian-American from New Jersey, has been looking for love for years.
She lists the typical gamut of desired qualities in a man: respectful, self-sufficient, and ready to share her love for books, cooking, and music. But there’s one non-negotiable requirement: he has to be Muslim.
Finding Muslims who match not only her taste but also her level of piety has been daunting, she says.
Moreover, dating is frowned upon by her parents, who uphold the marriage norms of Palestinian society. There, customs are often marked by pragmatism rather than romance. In many areas, parents or other relatives arrange – and sit in on – initial meetings between prospective couples, who typically decide whether to become engaged after only a few visits.
So Ana was thrilled to one day stumble upon HipsterShaadi.com, a new site catering to young Muslims “tired of all the ‘possibilities’ the aunties keep bringing up at every get-together,” according to its Facebook page.
The project was born when Sheereen Nourollahi, a 26-year-old Iranian-American, and Humaira Mubeen, a 24-year-old Pakistani-American, were discussing dating in an online forum for Muslim hipsters, or “Mipsterz.”
“We fill in that space that maybe our community or mosques don’t. We’re giving them a space to come, maybe not for marriage, but at least to test the waters,” says Ms. Mubeen, while stressing that the site’s features – such as access to profile photos only after a connection is made – offer an experience vastly different from Western-style dating site.
