For many Moroccans dating is nearly non-existent and arranged marriages have a history of being commonplace in the North African country. However, times appear to be changing for young people in the country in search of their life partners.
A new website aims at assisting young Moroccans in finding their future spouses via the “cyber” marriage site being dubbed the “marriage souq,” or market.
Soukzouaj is a free site where thousands of young Moroccans can browse profiles and message potential partners.
According to Yasser Nejjar, founder of soukzouaj.ma, in an interview with the French news agency AFP, the site was established in June last year.
“So it’s recent, but it has a real success because it’s free and it’s near.”
Nejjar said that some 3,000 visitors enter the site on a daily basis, the vast majority being women. It shows a map of the country broken into 16 sections and each user can then click on the area of the country to begin their search.
“Today, for example, there are 1,670 posts from women as against 870 from men. To my mind that means women are more daring than men,” Nejjar continued.
“Most of the posts show there is a great desire for commitment and ‘seriousness’, in what they call ‘halal’, that is to say legal, which is in line with religious norms. In short, marriage.”
By Jonathan Terry
