海角大神

Ana, a Palestinian-American from New Jersey, has been looking for love for years.聽

She lists the typical gamut of desired qualities in a man: respectful, self-sufficient, and ready to share her love for books, cooking, and music. But there鈥檚 one non-negotiable requirement: he has to be Muslim.

Finding Muslims who match not only her taste but also her level of piety has been daunting, she says.

Moreover, dating is frowned upon by her parents, who uphold the marriage norms of Palestinian society. There, customs are often marked by pragmatism rather than romance. In many areas, parents or other relatives arrange 鈥� and sit in on 鈥� initial meetings between prospective couples, who typically decide whether to become engaged after only a few visits.

So Ana was thrilled to one day stumble upon HipsterShaadi.com, a new site catering to young Muslims 鈥渢ired of all the 鈥榩ossibilities鈥� the aunties keep bringing up at every get-together,鈥� according to its Facebook page.

The project was born when Sheereen Nourollahi, a 26-year-old Iranian-American, and Humaira Mubeen, a 24-year-old Pakistani-American, were discussing dating in an online forum for Muslim hipsters, or 鈥淢ipsterz.鈥�

鈥淲e fill in that space that maybe our community or mosques don鈥檛. We鈥檙e giving them a space to come, maybe not for marriage, but at least to test the waters,鈥� says Ms. Mubeen, while stressing that the site鈥檚 features 鈥� such as access to profile photos only after a connection is made 鈥� offer an experience vastly different from Western-style dating site.

When they launched in late October, the site鈥檚 creators were hoping to reach out to 鈥渢hird-culture kids鈥� exactly like Ana 鈥� singles in their 20s and 30s, who are often highly educated first-generation Americans and are struggling to balance multiple cultural identities.

Today, the site has 650 users, and growing. It鈥檚 recently gone global, and is now available in cities like Washington and London, as well as in the Middle East, in places like Egypt and the Palestinian territories.

Browsing usernames like KhanyeWest, Pakiswagger, and MakeChaiNotWar, Ana says she was optimistic about meeting 鈥渟omeone that was聽more of a 鈥榤odern/Americanized鈥櫬燤uslim.鈥�

She immediately signed up and crafted a brutally honest profile meant to ward off men too conservative.

鈥淣ot looking for someone more religious than I am (I fast, don't pray yet),鈥� she writes. 鈥淚f you think a woman belongs in the kitchen and shouldn't work or get an education then I am not interested.鈥�

Ana has refrained from telling her parents that she鈥檚 joined the site, fearing reprimand for dating. But 鈥渢hose taboos are going away rapidly,鈥� says Hassan Shaikley, one of the site鈥檚 young programmers.聽

It serves a modern generation of Muslims who, he says, are still fully aware that 鈥渋n the religion, marriage is encouraged 鈥� and marriage is said to embody half of the faith.鈥�