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| Hipster Shaadi: the matchmaking site for hip young Muslims | |
| (about 17 hours later) | |
| As self-aware dating websites go, this is up there with the best of them. The logo is a pink heart wearing a pair of thick-framed black spectacles (beloved of "creative" types all around the world) and a luxurious handlebar moustache. One of the taglines reads "Time to break out the tasbih", another, simply: "Let's shaadi you up now". | |
| Welcome to Hipster Shaadi: a dating website for third culture kids AKA "proud Muslim Americans", which launched at the end of October. It's the place to go if you're looking for that special person, without the soul-destroying rigmarole of having ill-matched "possibilities" lined up by aunties at parties. | |
| Site founders Shereen Nourollahi, 26, and Humaira Mubeen, 24, met on an online forum, Mipsterz – "Muslim hipsters" – while taking part in a discussion about the chasm between parents' expectations and younger generations' approach to marriage. They decided to start a website to connect people with the same mindset. | |
| "We wanted something really simple, that allowed people to write about themselves," says Nourollahi. "Not like other websites, which have parents putting up nice, squeaky clean profiles that advertise their kids' degrees and height and complexion." The gap Hipster Shaadi fills is the one that comes after the non-negotiable "Islamic identity". "You know, the other things these American-born kids really care about," she continues. Unsurprisingly, a good amount of traffic has come from social media and word of mouth. "I heard we're on Reddit, and NPR sought us out. I don't even know how they found us," she laughs. | |
| The profiles are more or less what you'd find on other websites, but sprinkled with references to users' faith. The best profiles are funny and not too earnest – Nourollahi says the most popular so far is from a 25-year-old "hardcore anti-consumerist" freegan from Michigan, whose requirements for a significant other opens with "halal in the streets but haram in the sheets" accompanied by a smiley face emoticon. Another profile says: "I'm not a hipster. I do like plaid, though." Interests range from skateboarding and surfing to Death Cab for Cutie. Is there a line that keeps coming up, I ask Nourollahi. "It's a variation on 'progressive, open-minded and willing to adapt'," she says. She laughs before adding: "But we have the full spectrum of outliers." Interestingly, there are no photographs required – a feature that a lot of users have responded to very enthusiastically. "Once a person gets connected, they can see a photograph, but not while browsing." | |
| It's a bit early for any happy-ever-afters, but already the in-house Hipster Shaadi family has grown. The site is now run by a team of four – the founders took on two programmers, Hassan Shaikley, 22, and Sadique Ali, 27, at the beginning of November, and they have helped developed the site even further. All four staff are based in different US cities, on opposite coasts. The initial idea was hashed out over email; they have never even been in the same room together unless you count Google Hangouts. In the meantime, I have to ask: will Hipster Shaadi ever make it to the UK? "The demand is definitely there," says Nourollahi. "Google Analytics says our number-one city for page views is London," says Nourollahi. "Why not?" | |
| • This article was amended on 23 November 2013 to correct the spelling of Sadique Ali's name. The headline was also amended to reflect the fact that the site is intended for matchmaking rather than just dating | |
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