Tag: online dating

  • Tinder now has ‘arranged dating’ feature

    Tinder now has ‘arranged dating’ feature

    Every singleton dreads this question from their parents: “Are you currently dating anyone?” However, thanks to Tinder’s new feature, those days of avoiding this inquiry might be a thing of the past.  

    Tinder has introduced a feature called “Tinder Matchmaker,” which enables users’ friends and family to view and recommend potential matches for them. This feature might have spared Robert De Niro’s character a great deal of turmoil in the film “Meet the Parents,” where he clashed with his potential son-in-law, played by Ben Stiller.

    Tinder Matchmaker is currently available in the UK, US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, and Vietnam. It will gradually expand to other countries.  

    This feature builds on the common practice of users seeking their friends’ opinions by handing them their phones. According to Melissa Hobley, the chief marketing officer, “For years, singles have asked their friends to help find their next match on Tinder, and now we’re making that so easy with Tinder Matchmaker. It brings your circle of trust into your dating journey, helping you see potential matches you might be overlooking from the perspective of those closest to you.”  

    Tinder, which initially launched in September 2012, has significantly transformed the online dating landscape. In September, it introduced a $500 invite-only membership tier called Tinder Select, catering to “elite” users, offered to less than 1 per cent of users.   

    Additionally, in August, the company announced testing an artificial intelligence tool designed to select a user’s best-looking photos for their profiles, with the hope of increasing the likelihood of getting swiped right. This tool will analyse a user’s photo album and choose the five images that best represent them. 

  • Love online: Yet another foreign woman marries Pakistani man

    Love online: Yet another foreign woman marries Pakistani man

    It looks like sirf KPK kay paani mein kuch khaas nahi hai, Sindh main bhee potent paani hai.

    Yet again, foreign women are meeting Pakistani men on social media apps and marrying them a year later. Humein bhi kuch samajh nahi araha. A Filipino woman named Mikona, has married a Larkana man, Oshaq, via video call, after meeting him on Facebook where they became close friends. According to ARY, the nikah ceremony took place at a local hotel where friends and family members were present.

    Speaking to the media, Oshaq said he will secure a visa and fly out to Philippines to be with his wife.

    The wedding follows a string of online romances where foreign women flew to Pakistan to marry men they formed connections with online. KPK was leading the race with more marriages held in the month of July than all the December shaadi seasons compiled. On 30 July, Rosa flew from Mexico to Buner, KPK, to marry Izaz Ali, whom she had met on Facebook.

    Read more: Ye KP mein kya ho raha hai: Mexican woman flies to Pakistan to marry Facebook lover

    Previously, a woman from Chile developed a relationship on Tiktok with Ikramullah from KP, and then flew to the province in July to marry him.

    Read more: Humaray paani mein kuch hai? In third love story this month, Chile woman flies to marry Pakistani lover

  • My best friend’s fake wedding: Bajaur man held for hoax of British girl marrying his friend

    My best friend’s fake wedding: Bajaur man held for hoax of British girl marrying his friend

    In a bizarre turn of events, a man from Bajaur district was arrested by local police for making and spreading a fake Facebook post claiming his best friend had married a British woman.

    Muhammad Gulab posted a fake picture of a woman, claiming that Ela from Britain had travelled to the Bajaur district to marry his best friend. When the viral post caught the attention of the police, they quickly dispatched a team to investigate the presence of an undocumented foreigner in the area.
    However, the post was found to be fake and Gulab was arrested for spreading false information on social media.

    News sources reported that local residents were enraged by the arrest and were protesting against it

    This case comes to light after a string of foreign women from Chile, Mexico, India and China travelled to the province to marry the men they had met on social media. Recently, 49-year-old Rosa from Mexico travelled to Buner to marry 17-year-old Izaz Ali, after meeting him on Facebook.

    READ MORE: Ye KP mein kya ho raha hai: Mexican woman flies to Pakistan to marry Facebook lover

    Another case emerged when 36-year-old Nicole Ilgesias from Chile travelled to marry Ikramullah, whom she met on Tiktok.

    READ MORE: Humaray paani mein kuch hai? In third love story this month, Chile woman flies to marry Pakistani lover

  • Are we obsessed with the The Minor case?

    Are we obsessed with the The Minor case?

    The Minor is a household name these days. A young girl, came into the limelight when a case of a missing minor girl was reported in Karachi. The missing or allegedly abducted girl was later found in Punjab where she had gotten married and was apparently living a happy life with her husband. This is where the case unravelled.

    The Minor happens to be underage and her marriage to her husband is not considered a legal one per law. A girl/boy getting married under the age of 18 years is considered to be illegal. Earlier this year, Justice Babar Sattar of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) declared any marriages under the age of 18 years unlawful even though each province has different legal age for marriage.

    The problem, in this case, is that no one is talking about the law here. The Minor is being dragged to the hospital every now and then to check her age through medical tests. Her parents come on television, record videos, and say how their daughter has been trapped. The Minor, on the other hand, keeps saying that she is happy and is not under any pressure. The court allowed her to decide who to stay with instead of keeping her in a government shelter until everything had been settled, under the law. Legal observers have raised another question including why a medical test, which is not accurate, is allowed when NADRA documents prove that she is a minor. Did the court not trust NADRA records and if not, why? These questions have so far not been answered.

    In this case, we have left the main issue, i.e. underage marriage behind and are only catering to the drama that is unfolding: the fact that she sat on a cushion during an interview or that she wore make-up. Why is no one talking about how important it is for parents to talk with their children? Why is no one talking about how this case will impact the minds of children whose television screens keep flashing The Minor and her husband, the crying mother, and sister of The Minor ? Why is no one talking about how traumatic all this is for girls and boys of this age? Why is no one talking about how two children — who are apparently underage — got married after meeting online? Why did the boy’s family agree when the girl was quite obviously a minor? Why is there silence around these issues?

    We hope that parents start to have open conversations with their children and create an environment where children can speak openly and a relationship of trust is built between them.

  • Online dating still a taboo in Pakistan

    Online dating still a taboo in Pakistan

    After endlessly swiping through pictureless profiles on dating apps, Muhammad Ali Shah still hasn’t found the one — or really anyone — to get serious with.

    In Pakistan, where arranged marriages are the norm, he says many women choose to stay anonymous, making online dating matches tricky.

    “It’s slim pickings,” sighs the 36-year-old entrepreneur living in Islamabad, saying friends have called him “desperate” and a “man whore” after going on dozens of dates over the past three years to little avail.

    Unlike in many countries where meeting online is routine, Pakistanis who use dating apps regularly face harassment and judgmental relatives — and now also have to contend with a government clampdown.

    Women users in particular fear possible retribution and often reveal little about themselves — using cartoons, avatars, or random pictures of nature instead of a profile photo.

    “Girls aren’t comfortable… so they don’t really put their pictures or their real names. So it’s a guessing game,” explains Shah.

    The self-described conversationalist relies instead on humorous icebreakers with new matches to kick-start chats, and only asks for a picture if the potential date is comfortable and possibly up for meeting.

    “Most of the time I’m just left swiping because there aren’t any pictures. There’s no real information. The names are not there,” adds Shah. “I don’t blame women for being so careful. I actually think it’s very smart.”

    A 27-year-old woman from Islamabad who was brave enough to post real photos and her name said it was “kind of taboo to be on Tinder”.

    “I was getting phone calls from friends saying ‘I can’t believe you’re on Tinder’,” she said, asking not to be named, adding that she connected with both women and men.

    But she eventually deleted the app once business clients started trying to interact with her on it.

    She says some of her friends who were willing to take the risk have found varying levels of success, but only after going on carefully planned dates.

    “What we do when a friend of ours is going on a Tinder date, we normally just hang out at the same place,” she adds. “We make it sort of safe.”

    If finding love online was already difficult, authorities last month banned Tinder, Grindr and other popular apps for failing to “moderate” their content.

    The move dealt a fresh blow to what is already a niche scene in the country of 220 million people, where most online daters come from the middle and upper classes in Pakistan’s urban areas.

    For the more traditionally inclined, life without dating apps will serve as a return to normality.

    “Dating is not part of our culture or religion. Things need to be done in a halal way — especially something as important as finding a life partner,” explains a 50-year-old matchmaker based in Karachi who has been helping families find suitable partners for arranged marriages for over a decade.

    “Banning these dating apps is a way to preserve our traditions.”

    But despite the potential pitfalls, some say finding love online is possible and a way to avoid arranged marriages.

    “I’d simply had it with the whole culture of arranged marriage in Pakistan, where I’m paraded around in front of mothers, sisters and matchmakers as they pick on my flaws and remind me how I’m not worthy of their son,” says a 23-year-old medical student living in Lahore who met her husband on Tinder and asked not to be named.

    “It took a while until I found someone I could trust, respect, and rely on,” she adds. “But I found him on my own terms, and that’s what makes it special too.”