Iranian government launches matchmaking websites

Shahrzad News -- Clerics regard the way the young people of today choose marriage partners as sinful, and against Islamic law. And it seems now that the religious regime wants to impose its own standards on the very concept of marriage.

Shahrzadnews:Controversy regarding new matchmaking centres and dating agencies run by

the Iranian government is dominating the home news pages of the newspapers.

Clerics regard the way the young people of today choose marriage partners as sinful, and against Islamic law. And it seems now that the religious regime wants to impose its own standards on the very concept of marriage. According to the newspaper Khorasan, certain government agencies and civil servants have been commissioned to define new criteria for marriage, which will then be publicised in the national media. The plan has stimulated much debate between government officials and sociologists who regard it as outdated and pointless.

Supporters of the proposal say many single young people rely heavily on the internet, and online matchmaking agencies can introduce them to one another. According to Dr. Ghulam Reza Kebria-Ghasemi for example, who is a senior lecturer and family advisor at the University of Tehran, “The ever-increasing attraction of the internet among the younger generation makes it an ideal medium for setting new standards of marriage and telling people what to expect from it.”

Opponents argue that young Iranians’ desire for marriage has been eroded by deep economic hardship and widespread unemployment. Dr. Mustafa Eghlima, head of Iran’s Association of Scientific Social Care Providers told Khorasan: “The problem here is not any lack of channels for developing pre-marriage friendships. The time has long gone since our young women needed intermediaries to find husbands. Nowadays girls spend ten years at school, and often remain away from their homes for another five or six years, studying at university. These women are not the type who need someone to tell them who to marry. The plans are outdated and superfluous. They’ll keep a few people busy for a while, and then in a few years they’ll prove to be useless and be discarded.”