"I agreed to have a wife after more than two months of using the application, and the marriage contract is scheduled to be written within days," says Amr, a 34-year-old Egyptian who used the affectionate application, which is one of the Islamic marriage applications.
According to Amr telling Al-Jazeera Net, the choice was difficult, but the application gave him the advantage of access to his partner, as he decided to use the application during the home quarantine period imposed on the country due to the Corona virus, which prevented him from leaving the house except for necessity, continuing that he was not taking the matter seriously. But he discovered his other half by using the app.
Dating applications in Egypt
Mawaddah application is one of the applications that relies on registering with personal data that appears in the search lists with personal pictures so that there is a choice and preference from the other party, and in the event that the other party's profile is appropriate, the communication occurs through an internal chat application of the available application.
It is noteworthy that the circumstances of the Corona virus related to preventing gatherings contributed to changing the character of many young people in Egypt, especially with regard to acquaintance and marriage, as a number of electronic dating applications witnessed a state of momentum among young people in Egypt during the recent period.
It has been translated towards young people for dating applications that are "affectionate", "Hawaya" and "Al-Khattaba" applications, most notably, in addition to a number of groups on social networking sites Facebook that specialize in online dating.
The Hawaya application attracts large numbers of Egyptian youth, and last April announced an increase of 40% in the number of registered youths looking for marriage in the application since the home quarantine procedures, in addition to an increase of 25% in the time young people spend inside the application, and the percentage 50% for in-app chat usage.
The idea of the application is eliminated by working to reconcile the two who are about to get married by each user answering the application to some questions, and a number of nominations for those wishing to obtain a life partner are determined based on the answers, which are determined by experts in psychology and marital relations, and through the use of artificial intelligence to differentiate between The two parties.
Marriage via Zoom
The matter does not depend on dating applications only, but also communication sites and chat applications played a role in consummating the marriage in light of the Corona virus, which is what Magda Nassef, who married her daughter after a love story that began during the period of the Corona virus spread using one of the dating applications, to develop to use the chat application Via Facebook, and she decided to marry her daughter after she made sure of the compatibility of the two parties and the state of intimacy between them.
Magda Nasif continues her narration to Al-Jazeera Net about the situation that she was exposed to as a mother, as she agreed to marry her daughter after an online acquaintance. She says, “My daughter organized her joy through the electronic application Zoom, and she was very beautiful, she wore her dress, and her sister provided her with everything she needed, and decorated the house. The most beautiful types of roses. "
Although she was unable to attend her daughter's joy due to her presence outside the country, Magda felt happy about her daughter's marriage using the electronic application that allowed her to watch the event via live broadcast and communicate with her daughter and husband, stressing that it was joyful for her as she saw her daughter enter the marital nest.
Magda believes that marriage does not mean the establishment of great joy or the presence of a lot of attendance and other rituals of marriage, as much as it is needed for the couple to feel happy with each other, saying, "I consider that feeling joy is real joy and one must learn joy in the simplest things in order to live his life." Happy. "
Corona changed the nature of joys
Despite the circumstances of the Corona virus and the prevention of holding weddings and gatherings, Mahmoud Abdel Razek, an employee of a private sector company, did not want to wait much or delay the completion of his wedding, especially after he postponed the marriage for a long period that extended until the marital apartment is prepared and the requirements of the bride are met.
The government in Egypt had issued a decision since the spread of the Corona pandemic to prevent the holding of weddings and gatherings, with an emphasis on closing wedding halls, which was followed by security campaigns to disperse many weddings and close the violating wedding halls since last March, which made weddings limited to the attendance of the authorized person and a number of Limited from parents, and a small (feast) to present candy or chocolate to the attendees, in addition to relying on social media to create a live broadcast of the atmosphere of joy.
Mahmoud believes that his marriage at this particular time was a divine gift because it made him rich in wedding expenses and renting the wedding hall, so that he and his wife would be satisfied with holding a small party that brings him together with his bride and their first-degree relatives, for fear of being arrested or being infected with Corona.
The positive thing is that he was able to save the expenses of staying al-Farah in order to direct it to another useful thing away from the noisy atmosphere of wedding halls, the rental of which can reach figures of 20 thousand pounds (about 1300 dollars).
Mahmoud says to Al-Jazeera Net, "What struck me most was the absence of relatives or friends in joy, but we were overwhelmed by the feelings of good friends and family on the social networking site Facebook after announcing our marriage through pictures and posts."
E-acquaintance is sufficient for the decision to marry?
"Electronic acquaintance may be a beginning, but it cannot be relied upon finally in marriage in light of the need for the two parties to see each other, and to know the character of each of them," according to the expert in mental health and family relations, Dr. Muhammad Hani.
Hani believes that the relationships on the Internet, which have spread a lot during the recent period - especially in light of the outbreak of the Corona epidemic - may be not serious in many cases, and the aim of them may be friendship or spending time, which should be wary of.
It also only gives the first impression about the two parties wanting to marry, so each party will try to beautify itself and show itself in the best way, which may lead to separation and divorce later because there is no agreement between the two parties, indicating in his statements to Al-Jazeera Net that the decision to marry and acquaintance needs time. And friction in order not to collide with a failed marriage relationship.