Nadia Iqbal performed a monologue at the Muslim Writer’s Collective about online dating, talking about one “digital Casanova” who told her that he would treat her like a princess. “Inside of my head, I was like, that sounds awful! What are you going to do, lock me in a tower? Curse me with eternal slumber until an interested man kisses me? Allow the paparazzi to invade every aspect of my life until it ends in a car crash that kills me? Burn out my candle at age 39? I was like, Nah, dude, I’ve got [stuff] to do. I ain’t got time to be treated like a princess.”
According to PEW, 67% of American Muslims are reported to be under the age of 40 and the Muslim portion of the total U.S. population is projected to double by 2050 which makes the single Muslim scene especially, um, hopping. “For its members, many of whom grew up in small towns with few Muslims, dating apps help solve the problem of how to find each other,” reports New York Magazine. The magazine breaks down all the current Muslim dating apps — from the mega popular Minder (the Muslim Tinder) to Halaler, Muzmatch, Salaam Swipe, Half Our Deen, Crescent, and Muslima. “
Haroon Moktarzhada, co-founder of Minder, explains his app’s appeal: “If you’re a Muslim limiting yourself to dating Muslims, your pool is small — mosque, school, and work friends. You meet two or three people and marry one of them instead of taking the time to meet many people and get an understanding of what you like. Minder is a platform to do that. In America, the expectation of what a marriage is, is very different than in more traditional, conservative societies.”
