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Express Tribune
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Singles seek love at capital meetup
Whether it is the best of times, or the worst of times – or as some would say both – the marriage matchmaking market in Pakistan stays in business. Curated meetups for singles in the city appear to be the latest creative take on finding rishtey. Muzz, the matchmaking app for Muslims, recently hosted a Baat Pakki event for single candidates looking for a marriage partner in Islamabad. Around 70 eligible men and women attended along with their mothers, who were also invited to the event. The meetup was more than just a gathering; it was styled like a reality TV game show where attendees were given name tags that specified only their name and age, before they were divided across zones based on age groups. To start off, candidates who were closer in age were seated at the same table with nudges from the staff and icebreaking prompts to encourage discussion. Prompts included intriguing questions such as "Which of your five senses would you give up?" which had candidates agreeing with each other and more divisive ones like "What are your thoughts on dressing modestly?" Every 20 minutes or so, candidates were asked to switch tables, ensuring that they got a chance to meet the different people at the event. At the same time, the mothers, who were differentiated by Team Boy and Team Girl stickers, socialised with each other in a separate zone. The staff remained hands-on throughout the event, facilitating matches by providing interested candidates with a space to chat one-on-one and informing candidates of any potential matches their mothers had identified. "This is actually much better than the arranged marriage rishta process," said the mother of a male candidate. "I personally do not like going to people's houses and giving them an evaluation on whether we liked their daughter. It's better that youngsters meet and decide for themselves." Maheen, 27, who was able to find a match at the event and has continued talking to him since then, said, "My mother kind of forced me to come here. I don't even use the app. I just downloaded it to purchase the tickets, so, I didn't have high hopes, but it was actually a nice experience." Several candidates remarked that the in-person meetup was a more effective alternative to finding matches through the app. Requiring participants to bring their mothers and purchase tickets priced at Rs7,500 made it more likely that serious candidates attended the event. It was also apparent that the Muzz team had vetted the profiles of the participants beforehand. "We have introduced a number of changes to our app to ensure the candidates' legitimacy. We now verify their identity, age and salary, and we have added a lot more filters, so that people can find genuine connections based on their own preferences," Muzz CEO Shahzad Younas, who was in Pakistan for the Baat Pakki event, told the Express Tribune. Muzz, the Muslim-owned app for matchmaking, is active in over 190 countries and has 12 million users. "We have had a lot of new users join the app lately, and thousands have reached out to us in 2024 to share that they got married through the app," said Muzz PK Marketing Lead, Nayab Nazir, pointing towards her sister-in-law who had found her husband through the Muzz app. "What's most amazing is the cross-regional matches we have seen as people from different cultures and backgrounds, like those from the Middle East and the UK, are able to connect despite their differences," she added.
Arab News
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
Singles meet-up in Pakistan's capital offers modern matchmaking with traditional touch
ISLAMABAD: In a country where conservative social norms often discourage casual dating, nearly 190 Pakistanis gathered in Islamabad on Saturday for a rare singles meet-up offering a more open, yet culturally respectful, route to finding a life partner. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @ Organized by Muzz, the world's largest Muslim marriage app with over 15 million members, the event launched a series of matchmaking gatherings across Pakistan under the banner 'Baat Pakki,' an Urdu phrase used when families agree to a marriage match. Muzz told Arab News it has over 2 million users in Pakistan. A chaperone was mandatory for every participant, reflecting cultural sensitivities and ensuring seriousness. 'The goal of the event today was to help people of mixed ages to be able to meet each other,' Shahzad Younas Khan, CEO of Muzz, told Arab News. 'The job of the team here … is to help people mingle and make sure that hopefully by the end of the event, everyone has talked to everyone who's potentially compatible with them,' he added. Attendees were divided into three age groups — 22 to 30, 30 to 40 and 40-plus — with an adjoining lounge for family members. Icebreaker questions and Muzz staff helped start conversations at each table. Singles first met within their age group before being introduced to others, aiming for broad interaction during the four-hour gathering. The event was unique in a country where marriages are traditionally arranged by families or through professional matchmakers known as 'Rishta Aunties,' who connect prospective families but rarely allow singles to meet independently before a match is proposed. 'Involving parents makes the process more transparent,' said Nazleen Javed, 65, who attended with her daughter. 'Matchmakers are fake. See if you are coming with mother, your lie gets caught. A mother cannot lie, and the blessings of parents are different.' Others valued the chance to break away from rigid traditions. 'This way is better because you can see, talk and get a feel of the person,' said Noreen Khan, who came with her son. 'Children have to spend their lives together. They should have some freedom to meet and speak to each other.' Maheen, 27, said she had long been uncomfortable with conventional arranged marriage practices. 'I am not fond of the traditional way [of matchmaking] wherein the boy's family visits your house and you, holding the tray, enter the room and they are looking at you, picking out faults,' she said. 'You [should be able to] talk to each other one-on-one, face-to-face, without the fear of rejection,' she continued. 'That's why I am here.' Fariha Khan, 36, who works in the NGO sector in Peshawar, appreciated the diversity of participants. 'People from different cities and castes met here. That hesitation around differences was reduced today.' Saad Waheed, 28, a mechanical engineer, admitted feeling uneasy at first after arriving at the event. 'I was a little bit hesitant … because I needed a chaperone and it felt very strange to me,' he said. 'But in the long run, it makes sense. It means that everyone that's here is serious about what they have signed up for.' Waheed also maintained matrimonial apps often felt impersonal to him. 'Single events like these offer a chance to make friends, which is a more natural way of meeting a partner.' Nayab Nazir, Muzz's marketing lead for Pakistan, said participants can later review the profiles of those they met through the app. 'I go back home, and if I have liked, let's say, five people at the event, I can actually go and look at all those five profiles and connect directly instead of having a third person in between.' Founded in 2015, Muzz has increasingly adapted its approach for Pakistan's cultural context. 'We actually found that by inviting the mums it just helped make sure everyone was more serious,' Khan, the company's CEO, said. 'It helps reduce the taboo of going to a singles event effectively,' he added. 'A lot of mums can meet each other. They can see lots of people in one place in just a few hours.'
