Reports | 25 05 2020
Young Zeina, resident of Aleppo, met her current husband via the "Happy Syrian Family Meeting" group on Facebook. Such unusual method does not surprise Zeina in the least; she even says it is only normal, given the "dearth of young men in Syria."
She expresses her great happiness in marriage, and says: "I would encourage young men and women to go search for their partner through this group; if they are teruly seriously committed, and possess enough cultural and social awareness."
Zeina sees many pros in this method, but certainly with some cons—such as the difficulty of ensuring the seriousness and sincerity of the other party.
Ayman, who found his life partner through this group, believes that this method represents a good solution to the problem of young expatriates; and advises everyone to try it, having himself had a successful experience.
So, How Does This Group Work?
The group attracts many young Syrians, especially nowadays with Valentine's Day upon us. Some even filled in the forms, awaiting their lucky break.
Shady, for example, hopes to find his partner in the same way, despite his initial misgivings about the idea. He soon changed his mind, however, after contentning himself with the group's firm and serious approach; especially that one of his friends got received attached through them.
Hussam Murad, manager of "Happy Syrian Family Meeting" that his group, is much like any other normal society in public life. His idea is that circumstances brought about by the war and the difficulty of people dating justifies its existence.
Hussam's project began seven months ago, and he manages it with the help of female supervisors as well as a number of volunteers, he says. The supervisors go about reviewing Facebook accounts of those who fill out the forms, so as to filter out any alias accounts, or those with surreptitious motives.
Hussam confirms more than a hundred marriages arranged through his group, with over 1,100 people having filled out forms.
The marriage request applications is done via special forms; anyone who finds a form appropriate to their liking enters in communication with them. Hussam adds that persons enterning the group for frivolous activity can be easily spotted.
Noor, one of the group's supervisors, finds that arranging marriage through their group, "is not wrong, given the current conditions in which we live. What happens here is merely the initial hookup—the rest of the details, will be a matter handled between both sides."
Disapproval and Doubts...!
A young Syrian women we met finds that Syrians' relation to Facebook has become very strong relationship recently; it has almost become the only way to bring people together. She also expressed her disapproval of this idea.
She says: "Each party is going to be trying to create a specific character for oneself—with idealized characteristics that they do not actually possess, merely to impress the other party into marriage. I imagine such a marriage will only cause problems later, due to lack of proper previous communication."