Iranian Internet Dating: Real Life or Just TV?
A young, single Iranian woman sits at the dinner table while her parents discuss her love life, spurred on by anecdotes from her younger brother. Taking solace in her bedroom, she flips open her laptop and logs on to IranianPersonals.com an ethnic singles website run by Potoma’s World Singles to find a suitable suitor…
The scenario takes place in a TV commercial, which was aired in Farsi, with English subtitles, in Maryland, Northern Virginia and other areas with a high concentration of young Iranian singles, such as Orange County.
This rose-tinted ad was broadcast during entertainment and dating shows like True Hollywood and Blind Date in the week leading up to and including Valentine’s Day 2004.
Iranian Personals: Tradition + technology = love at first click?
World Singles decided to give its Iranian site TV ad support first, because it is the oldest and most popular of their ethnic dating sites. With nearly 100,000 members in the United States and abroad, Iranian Personals is one of the most widely-used niche dating sites. The company also runs a number of other successful ethnic dating websites around the world.
Iranian Personal’s female membership has gone up by 40% per year since the site was launched in 2001, and appears to indicate that Iranian women (and parents) in the US are coming around to the idea of non-traditional dating methods.
Like their male counterparts, young female Iranian singles that use online dating feel it gives them the power to choose a suitor for themselves, while traditionally; family and friends would set up potential couples at parties or other functions.
A happy medium: Keeping it in the community
In an article with the Maryland Daily Record, published in 2004, dating expert and author Michael Lasky explains that ethnic dating works for young singles and families who have immigrated to America because it gives them access to the whole U.S. And it gives them their own country.
Acceptance of online dating in Iranian-American communities of course depends on how secular they are. While young Iranian singles are not always compelled to marry within their cultural community, many parents still hope deep down that they will.
Have you ever used an Iranian singles site? If so, how did it go? Please let us know…
Luck is infatuated with the efficient.- Persian proverb
