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Keep It Halal! A Smartphone Ethnography of Muslim Dating
Abstract
This article reveals how Muslim religious identity is impacted by Muslim dating apps. The development of Muslim dating apps within the last decade has led to Muslims seeking partners beyond their physical and social locality. The following research takes inner-Muslim discursive traditions into account in order to examine how Muslim males articulate and negotiate their Islamic identity in the process of partner selection. The research’s methodological approach draws from digital ethnography, with the smartphone as the primary field site. The smartphone ethnography on the app of Muzmatch will demonstrate that users are physically embedded in doctrinally heterogenous contexts. Yet, the religious framework of the app promotes a “doctrinal homogeneity” that finds expression via the discursive articulations of the app users. It will be shown that users are being shaped by the app as they incorporate the religious framework provided by it.
... Second, research on Muslim immigrants' dating, marriage, and spousal selection tend to draw their sample from exclusively Muslim-only sites such as mosques and Muslim matrimonial sites (Al-Johar 2005;Cila and Lalonde 2014;Grewal 2009;Hasan 2021;Lo and Aziz 2009). Muslims who attend those spaces are arguably more religious than those who do not. ...
... Indeed, contrary to common perception and widespread traditional expectations in Muslim communities, many young Muslims in Western countries date based on the idea that certain forms of dating are halal if they are intended to lead to marriage (Ali et al. 2020). Popularly called "halal dating," this "middle-of-the-road response" (Husain 2020:630) to balance strict Islamic and cultural norms with Western liberal ideals of agency and romance emerged in reaction to the context that dating is haram overall (Hasan 2021). As premarital dating is especially taboo for women, halal dating provides Muslim women searching for a romantic partner a "strategy of impression management aimed at protecting women's reputations" (Husain 2020:630). ...
Using the “complex religion” framework, this article shows the importance of religion while recognizing how race, national origin, and geopolitics shape how Muslims navigate their romantic lives. Based on 50 in-depth interviews of South Asian Muslim immigrants in Canada on interfaith and interracial romance, I show that taken-for-granted labels “Muslim” and “South Asian” are ambiguous even for the participants as they navigate the search for compatible partners. Race and ethnicity are important components alongside religion and sect that together give meaning to negotiations about who is a “real” Muslim. And despite a sense of panethnic desi groupness, religion, sect, and nationality create fissures that challenge and limit notions of brown solidarity on the ground, even for children of immigrants. Finally, I identify how another important yet overlooked dimension of Muslimness—global geopolitics—shapes participants’ romantic pursuits. Overall, this article problematizes current approaches to studying Muslim immigrant experiences in the West.
... Rheingold (1999) a propósito de comunidades amish, aparentemente tecnófobas, ha definido un uso selectivo, adaptado y ajustado a preceptos religiosos. De manera similar existen el teléfono y el smartphone kósher (Neriya-Ben Sahar, 2020; Rosenberg y Blondheim, 2021) o aplicaciones de citas halal (Hasan, 2021) que, mediante una analogía con los términos usados para las restricciones alimenticias, indican la avenencia de los dispositivos con formas correctas de vivir. Por su parte, Pype (2016) ha expuesto la manera en que la irrupción del teléfono móvil ha llegado a reconfigurar nociones sobre la feminidad en un contexto pentecostal de Kinsasa (República Democrática del Congo) en la convergencia entre sexualidad, tecnología y pentecostalismo. ...
En un estudio sobre redes digitales en una diáspora romaní procedente del occidente rumano, pudimos afinar nuestro conocimiento etnográfico del uso específico que la población estudiada hacía de las tecnologías digitales, observando que habían desarrollado «artesanías» concretas que reflejaban un modelado cultural del binomio smartphone-Facebook. Este modelado venía marcado por el temor al control-represión institucional, el correlato digital del sistema sexo-género, y un creciente papel del pentecostalismo en la gestión y valoración de Facebook. Asimismo, nuestra experiencia reveló el valor de la comprensión etnográfica para diseñar técnicas digitales de producción de datos culturalmente sensibles. Confirmamos que las respuestas a las tecnologías no son universales, dependiendo estas de los contextos socioculturales donde se generan. En este grupo, «vivir sin Facebook» puede ser difícil, pero también existe el riesgo constante de incurrir en «pecados» a través del smartphone, transgresiones que ponen en peligro vínculos familiares, religiosos y etnoculturales.
... However, the limited research on Muslim users is insufficient to reveal the uses and motivations associated with dating apps in different Muslim societies and how the practices and motivations of Muslim users differ from Muslims living in non-Muslim majority countries. Studies focusing on the latter group, such as in the UK (Ali et al., 2020), Germany (Hasan, 2020), and the US (Rochadiat et al., 2018), mainly discuss the agency of Muslim online daters regarding their dating habits and the changing conservative ideas around relations with the "opposite" sex, such as the acceptance of initiating an online conversation with potential partners for a woman or being able to see more options than in real life. However, it is essential to note that being Muslim in such countries as a minority should be regarded differently, as it is as much a political and cultural identity as a religious one (De Rooij, 2020). ...
Since Tinder's worldwide popularity, location-based dating apps have become widespread. The existing literature mainly focuses on a single app in European and US contexts and pays little attention to other cultural contexts. This paper addresses this gap by examining dating app choices and motivations of young adults (18–29 years old) in Turkey. It examines the intersectionality of socio-demographic variables in a cultural setting that is quite different not only from European and US contexts but also from other Muslim-majority contexts. Deriving from the nationally representative survey (n = 1,498), our research finds statistically significant differences in dating app preferences and adults’ motivations regarding location, sexual, gender, and religious identities. This study underlines the crucial role of cultural geography and its social fabric in mobile dating, even within the same national setting.
... Other scholars have used the term "virtual ethnography" (Mason 1996, pp. 4-6;Hine 2003), "internet ethnography" (Sade-Beck 2004), "netnography" (Kozinets 2015), or "smartphone ethnography" (Hasan 2021) to denote the collection of data from online or virtual fields. All of these terms are synonyms or subcategories depending on the field or object of the ethnography, e.g., websites, chat rooms, apps, and smartphones. ...
This article argues that Muslims have created a specific Muslim Instagram that sustains youthfulness and cultivates their deen (religion). Instagram as a social has become a space for Muslim youth all over the world to share images. These images, being circulated over Instagram across localities, create visual representations for other users. For this research, over 500 images with the hashtags #muslim and #islam were analysed to understand how Muslims represent themselves and their religion online. A two-step methodological procedure involved the adaption of iconographical and iconological techniques of visual art interpretation to the images collected. The concept of youthfulness and the Islamic concept of deen will be discussed in relation to the analysed images to demonstrate the emergence of a Muslim Instagram. Muslim Instagram is a translocal space that enables Muslims to simultaneously act eternally youthful and cultivate their deen. By playing with notions of youthfulness, Muslims recontextualise their faith and practice online to cultivate their deen. They thereby embed Islam and subsume Islamic concepts and practices into modern global lifestyle patterns of consumption.
Heteroseksüel çevrimiçi flört kültürü ve pratiklerini araştıran doktora projesinin bir parçası olan bu çalışma, bireylerin hem flört uygulamalarıyla etkileşimlerinde hem de çevrimiçi flört deneyimlerinde toplumsal cinsiyetin nasıl belirleyici olduğuna odaklanmaktadır. Türkiye’de popüler olan ve algoritmik mimarileri birbirinden farklı iki uygulamayı, Tinder ile OkCupid’i incelemiş ve kullanıcılarıyla Zoom mülakatları gerçekleştirmiştir. Çıkan bulgular, özellikle erkeklerin deneyimlerinde kullanıcıların görünürlüğünü belirleyen algoritmaların başat bir rolü olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. Erkekler, kadınların aksine, eşleşme alabilmek için algoritmaları yenecek ya da kandıracak çeşitli taktikler uygulamak durumunda kalmaktadır. Algoritmik mimari aynı zamanda bu uygulamaların toplumda nasıl algılanacağını etkilemektedir. Flört uygulamalarını, ama özellikle basit mimarisinden ötürü Tinder’ı, “takılma uygulamaları” olarak damgalayan toplumsal algı, kadın ve erkekleri farklı şekillerde etkilemektedir. Bu farklılık, genel olarak erkeklerin avcı, kadınlarınsa kurban olarak kodlandığı takılma pratiğinin toplumsal cinsiyet eşitsizliğini yeniden üreten yapısından kaynaklanmaktadır. Bu nedenle, erkeklere nazaran, kadınların deneyimlerinde “o tarz kadın” muamelesine maruz kalma ve “saldırıya uğruyormuş” hissine kapılma öne çıkmaktadır. Çalışma, bu bulgular ışığında, hem insan-uygulama etkileşimine hem de flört uygulamalarının nasıl kültürel objeler olduğuna dikkat çekerek Batı odaklı çalışmaların hâkim olduğu çevrimiçi flört literatürüne katkı yapmayı amaçlamaktadır.
This article provides an overview of contemporary research within the interdisciplinary arc of scholarship known as digital religion studies, in which scholars explore the intersection between emerging digital technologies, lived and material religious practices in contemporary culture, and the impact the structures of the network society have on understandings of spirituality and religiosity. Digital religion studies specifically investigates how online and offline religious spaces and practices have become bridged, blended, and blurred as religious groups and practitioners seek to integrate their religious lives with technology use within different aspects of digital culture.
Young Muslims in the UK are making space to gain greater control over their personal lives through the diction of ‘halal’ and ‘haram’ when reflecting on and negotiating personal relationships. This paper explores the significance of ‘halal dating’ within the lived experiences and sexual relationships of young British Muslims. It draws upon 56 in-depth interviews conducted with young (16-30 years) British Muslims of Pakistani heritage. Young British Muslims do date, or have dated, and by entertaining the idea that certain forms of dating may be halal, young Muslims are finding and claiming agency to make relationship choices of their own.
Ingress
Ekteskapet er et sentralt diskusjonstema innenfor islam, og blir også diskutert blant norske ungdommer med muslimsk bakgrunn. Enkelte velger å inngå utenomrettslige religiøse ekteskap for å kunne være sammen på en “halal måte”, mens andre er i kjæresteforhold hvor de selv bestemmer klare grenser for hva som er tillatt og ikke. Denne artikkelen bygger på intervjuer og samtaler med et utvalg ungdom med muslimsk bakgrunn bosatt i Bergens- og Stavangerområdet, og gir innblikk i hvordan disse ungdommene forhandler om religiøs identitet, intimitet og seksualitet som del av en norsk ungdomskultur.
Abstract
Marriage represents a fundamental topic of debate in Islam, and is also discussed among Norwegian youth of Muslim background. Some of them choose to engage in extrajudicial religious marriages as a “halal way” of being together, while others are in love relationships where they define for themselves the boundaries of what is allowed and not. This article builds on interviews and conversations with youth of Muslim background residing on the south west coast of Norway, and offers a glimpse into how these young people negotiate with regard to religious identity, intimacy and sexuality as part of a Norwegian youth culture.
Nøkkelord: Norsk ungdomskultur; Islam; Utenomrettslige religiøse ekteskap; Halal-dating; Religiøs identitet; Intimitet; Seksualitet.
Keywords: Norwegian youth culture; Islam; Extrajudicial religious marriages; Halal dating; Religious identity; Intimacy; Sexuality.
Websites and applications that match and connect individuals for romantic purposes are commonly used in the Western world. However, there have not been many previous investigations focusing on cultural factors that affect the adoption of similar technologies in religiously conservative non-Western cultures. In this study, we examine the socio-technical and cultural factors that influence the perceptions and use of matchmaking technologies in Saudi Arabia. We report the methods and findings of interviews with 18 Saudi nationals (nine males and nine females) with diverse demographics and backgrounds. We provide qualitatively generated insights into the major themes reported by our participants related to the common approaches to matchmaking, the current role of technology, and concerns regarding matchmaking technologies in this cultural con-text. We relate these themes to specific implications for designing marital matchmaking technologies in Saudi Arabia and we outline opportunities for future investigations.
This research examines how online dating technology affects the experience of mate selection and courtship among Muslim American women. Sixteen individuals who (1) self-identified as Muslim American women and (2) were actively using online dating websites participated in interviews about their experiences. Qualitative data analysis suggests that these women balance the perceived advantages of online dating (e.g. increased individual agency in initiating romantic relationships, increased control over interaction, greater confidentiality and privacy) with their desire to maintain their cultural and religious courtship practices. Additionally, participants identified challenges they faced with online dating, including social stigma, fear of others’ misrepresentation, and frustrations with technology. This study contributes toward a deeper understanding of how new technologies integrate with existing religions and cultures and gives insights into the nature of technological change and adaptation in society more generally.
Social media creates new virtual public spaces where young women and men living in socially conservative non-Western societies can communicate in order to meet and engage in forbidden intimacies. In this essay, using survey data on thousands of Facebook users from Muslim-majority countries, we look at the relationship between romance in public physical spaces and cyberspaces. To what extent do Facebook users make use of the Internet to pursue romance? And what are the attributes of individuals who use it in this way?
This article provides a new methodological approach to studying religious-oriented mobile applications available on the iTunes app store. Through an extensive review of 451 religious apps a number of problems were noted when relying solely on iTunes categories to identify app functions and purpose. Thus further analysis was done in order to present a new typology and framing of religious apps, which more accurately describe their design. We suggest that the 11 new categories offered here suggest a critical framework for studying religious apps. Thus this study provides a starting point for scholars interested in analyzing religious mobile applications to investigate how app developers integrate religious goals into their designs, and consider the primary ways people are expected to practice religion through mobile apps.
Purpose
– The aim of this study is to examine interpersonal trust in Muslim matrimonial sites (MMS) from a male perspective. Specifically how users perceive interpersonal trust in MMS; what are the signs of lack of trust in MMS (if any); and what strategies do users adopt to handle the lack of trust in MMS.
Design/methodology/approach
– This empirical qualitative study used ethnographic techniques to collect data. In addition to briefly observing five MMS, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with ten participants, who were all males, between the ages of 25-35, and residing in different locations, including the USA, the UK, the UAE, Australia and Bahrain. While the interviews focused on participants' experience in MMS, the analysis of these interviews focused on the issue of trust in these sites.
Findings
– The analysis has revealed that participants associated trust with “risk taking”, “reliance” on one's abilities, “self-confidence” and honesty with the first three being the major themes that transpired from the analysis of data. The analysis has also revealed three signs of lack of trust in MMS. Users expressed concern over a large number of members' profiles being fake; they appeared suspicious about these sites and approached them with caution and felt intimidated by the unrealistic expectations members placed on them. However, it was found users adopted several strategies to handle the lack of trust in MMS including using their communication skills to study others carefully, doing “police work” to uncover any inconsistencies in their statements, “interrogating” them using a pre-developed list of questions and involving their family members in their negotiations.
Originality/value
– Despite MMS immense popularity within the Islamic world, with the exception of a few articles, there are not many articles available in the academic literature on them. This article seeks to address this imbalance.
This paper analytically explores the recent rise of Internet use among American Muslims who are looking for marriage. Because American Muslims are a heterogeneous community consisting of individuals who, while confessing to a single article of faith, come from a plethora of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, finding a suitable mate within one's religious, cultural and emotional sphere has become a complex and, at times, problematic journey. As a result, American Muslims are increasing their use of the Internet to overcome existing spatial and cultural barriers. This paper introduces the background of the Islamic marriage tradition, examines American Muslims' marriage practices and then analysis how current online match-making sites are accommodating as well as challenging the American Muslim communities' traditional practices in matters of finding love and marriage partners.
The advent of online matrimony ushered in a new era of matchmaking in the wake of globalisation. This paper aims to examine the impact of globalisation on Hindu–Bengali matrimony. The study attempts to find out the impact of online matrimony on marriages in Kolkata. On the basis of personal interviews and content analysis of advertisements in newspapers and online matrimonial websites, the study shows the impact of globalisation on the institution of marriage. The paper argues that globalisation has not made potential changes in the process of selection of prospective brides and grooms. The newspapers and online portals function as the twin matchmakers in contemporary Kolkata, with little difference from the way traditional matchmakers used to work. The paper examines the fate and impact of technology when introduced in deeply entrenched traditional social institutions. The increase in the pool of selection of mates has reinforced patriarchal ties with globalisation adjusting itself in a tradition-bound society, putting tradition and technology in a curious and cumbersome paradox.
In Europe and the US, young Muslims are using online matchmaking in growing numbers. Online dating has increasingly become a mainstream activity, in Europe and North America at least. Western Muslims have adapted the idea to suit their needs. For many, online dating offers a low-stress solution to the daunting challenge of finding a partner for marriage in countries where few share their faith and in communities where matchmaking is considered a family affair. This paper will discuss the relationship between Muslim online matchmaking for British Muslims and their Islamic identities with regards to marriage and romantic relationships.
This book explores the diverse ways digital technology is shaping how Muslims across vast territories relate to religious authorities in fulfilling spiritual, mystical, and legalistic agendas. From social networks to websites, essential elements of religious practices and authority now have representation online. Muslims, embracing the immediacy and general accessibility of the internet, are increasingly turning to cyberspace for advice and answers to important religious questions. Online environments often challenge traditional models of authority, however. One result is the rise of digitally literate religious scholars and authorities whose influence and impact go beyond traditional boundaries of imams, mullahs, and shaikhs. The book shows how online rhetoric and social media are being used to articulate religious faith by many different kinds of Muslim organizations and individuals, from Muslim comedians and women’s rights advocates to jihad-oriented groups, such as the “Islamic State” and al-Qaeda, which relied on strategic digital media policies to augment and justify their authority and draw recruits. Hashtag Islam makes clear that understanding CIEs is crucial for the holistic interpretation of authority in contemporary Islam.
In a world where the term Islam is ever-increasingly an inaccurate and insensitive synonym for terrorism, it is unsurprising that many Muslim youth in the West struggle for a viable sense of identity. This book takes up the hotly-debated issue of Muslim youth identity in western countries from the standpoint of popular culture. It proposes that in the context of Islamophobia and pervasive moral panic, young Muslims frame up their identity in relation to external conditions that only see ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Muslims, on both sides of the ideological fence between Islam and the West. Indeed, by attempting to break down the ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ Muslim dichotomy that largely derives from western media reports, as well as political commentary, Muslim Youth in the Diaspora: Challenging Extremism through Popular Culture will enlighten the reader. It illuminates the way in which diasporic Muslim youth engage with, and are affected by, the radical Islamist meta-narrative. It examines their popular culture and online activity, their gendered sense of self, and much more. This original book will be of interest to students and scholars interested in the fields of sociology, cultural studies and social anthropology. It offers a particular focus on Islam for research in youth studies, youth culture, political radicalisation and religious identity. It will also be relevant to the sector of youth and social work, where practitioners seek to build cultural bridges with a new generation.
In this article I present the results of my fieldwork with ultra-Orthodox men, who are forbidden to interact with women. Specifically, I focused upon the world of young Torah scholars in the Jewish ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) community in Israel. This essay demonstrates the strategies I developed in order to enter this group and interview members: using a yeshiva student as a key informant, studying ancient texts with yeshiva students and simulating yeshiva practices. These methods enabled me to gain trust and privileges in a world forbidden to females. I thereby achieved a better understanding of how yeshiva students interpret their experiences in terms of the sacred and the profane, and how they evaluate and critique these experiences.
Indian matrimonial websites, as a new and popular medium for seeking marriage partners, have millions of users and have become increasingly important in India's marriage market as of the late 1990s. Despite their traditional approach, evident in their structure and design, these online spaces nevertheless reflect new dimensions of media usage and choice of partners. They show the active intervention of people in their own future planning. By assuming a basic connection between the growing media access and profound changes within contemporary Indian society, this article links media-based changes in matchmaking to an overall social change in post-liberalization India. With new lifestyles and social realities, notions regarding marriage, love, and gender roles are gradually being reworked. The analysis of the online matrimonial market and how it has been appropriated, offers remarkable insights into these dimensions of social change. Ninety percent of India's marriages are still termed as arranged, as opposed to the category of love marriage. But the varied ways in which many young Indians engage with matrimonial media show that this dichotomy of terms needs urgent revision. Increasing social, physical, and media mobilities serve in manifold ways as a key factor in social change, particularly with regard to women and marriage. The pervasive gender image of the New Indian Woman is an influential role model in online representations as well as in personal narratives. She rambines a modem lifestyle with cultural rootedness and makes way for new forms of subjectivity and agency. In the context of changing patterns and concepts, the ideological difference between agency and choice with regard to decision-making in matchmaking emerges as another crucial point for discussion. While agency emphasizes the capacity to act, choice is connoted by a consumerist viewpoint. But the explicitly new aspect about a medialised marriage market is the progressively interactive nature of online matrimonial media.
In this chapter we will be examining attitudes to marriage among young British Bangladeshi women. We see the move to new forms of Muslim piety among these women as related in part to the problems posed by marriage in the contemporary British environment. New Islamic groups provide both social and intellectual resources that may help to resolve difficulties and issues in relation to marriage and the family, including tension between Western models of romantic love and marriage and the desire to behave in a proper Islamic way. At the same time, the specific forms of Islamic practice adopted may also be constitutive of a new sense of self and a new identity which carries along with it a new and different sense of what the marital relationship, the woman's relationship to her own body and self and her relationship to her present or future children might be. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. All rights are reserved.
Marriage in its relation to religion, specifically Islam, is intrinsically linked to questions of sexual and gender norms. US Muslim communities,1 extremely diverse in their backgrounds, negotiate marriage in their discourses on a spectrum that constructs ‘American’ and ‘Muslim’ as opposing ends, while the realities of American Muslim marriage present a much more richly textured and thus complex picture. Norms and practices are co-developed in a complicated web of gender debates, distinctions of religion from culture, and developments within the American religious, social, and political environment that American Muslims share.
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