Monday, March 5, 2007
Finding the Online Iraqi Dating Scene
filed under: Dating 2.0 by Melissa Gira
Via boingboing, we get a story from the LA Times on the rise of online dating in Iraq. I love this graceful pointing to the sorts of intimacy the net can stimulate…
Reem, a striking 28-year-old with long dark hair, heavy makeup and lots of gold jewelry, used to meet regularly with a tight-knit group of college girlfriends. They would picnic in the park, go shopping and gossip at one another’s homes.
She hasn’t seen some of them for two years now. Many have fled the country. Those who remain venture outdoors only when they must.
Depressed and with too much time on her hands, Reem started posting love poems on an Internet forum for young Iraqis. Soon she was getting inquiries from lonely young men, with whom she chats about current events and vacations outside Iraq.
A civil servant who was afraid to give her last name, Reem isn’t interested in meeting any of them, but she enjoys the unfettered conversations that are possible only online.
“It’s very interesting to get to know a man away from the constraints of culture and tradition,” she says. “They console me and tell me there will be a day when this mess will end.”
… that applies, of course, outside the war zone. But how culturally-specific must a personal site be to best address its potential user base? And is there a place for a global online dating scene built on storytelling, wit, and a small bit of comfort in the storm? (And as to Baghdad’s Unpersonals: I’m reluctant to link anything, but for a tease of a screenshot that the usual suspects will surely recognize.)
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