2023-05-28 08:18:46
Day 1: “Hi, nice to meet you.”
Day 2: “What’s the news? Can I call you?”
Day Three: “Let’s meet face to face.”
Day 4: “Let’s get married and I will give you citizenship!”
The story begins with the “Send a friend request” click, leading to marriage.. And between “like” and “comment” is a thin line that separates the real relationship from the virtual one. Why do most young men and women in Lebanon today resort to establishing online relationships and friendships?
A “golden” opportunity to immigrate!
Sanaa Issa (28 years old) tells us how she met her husband, Khalil Ghadban, through the “Tinder” application, who was residing in London during the period of their acquaintance: “I was desperate and wanted to get out of Lebanon at any cost, so I came up with the idea of downloading the application two years ago, specifically during the quarantine period.” “This gave me the opportunity to get to know Khalil. We talked for about a year, after which we met for the first time in Turkey, and then we got married in Cyprus civilly. Here I am staying with him in Newham (Britain) and we are eagerly awaiting the birth of our daughter Maya in late June.” Sana says.
In an interview with Al-Modon, she recounted that she “was spending most of her free time searching for a foreign groom to rescue her from Lebanon’s hell and provide her with an opportunity to live in dignity.”
“The idea of dating electronically may seem a little crazy or illogical to some. How can we trust a stranger whom we have not seen or known? Actually, I did not think about these small things, because I usually care about the other party’s dealings with me. All the rest are details that do not interest me. I got to know Khalil through “Tinder”, but we later chose to marry of our own will, meaning that the application is nothing but a means that brought us closer to each other. I do not deny that dealing with him was not easy at first, as he repeatedly ignored me, and when he got angry he did not respond to my messages, but I was able to decipher his code with the kind word And a little bit of “coquettishness.” I do not hide from you my great fear of entering the age of thirty without getting married or having a child, as the mere thought terrified me. But if you think a little, aren’t we exposed to daily disappointments in our traditional social relations… What is the difference then? Sana asks.
Electronic “salon” marriage: a popular fad
In the era of technology and the diversity of options, it has become natural for no one to wait for “love at first sight” or to collide with a life partner in an old neighborhood in the rain showers and to the tunes of classic songs, so that a romantic story arises between them that everyone tells.
Actually, the era of shy dating has not ended, but the “saloon marriage” has moved from our traditional life to a virtual reality, in which everyone sings their nights, but with conditions and without a third party, that is, “from your head to your partner’s head.” The remarkable thing is that every young man or woman can play the role of “matchmaker” for themselves, as they download the application electronically and then choose the ideal “profile” in their view to start the acquaintance process, after carefully preparing their profile professionally to attract the other party.
About 12 years ago, the dating and dating app Tinder was launched in more than 200 countries around the world. In the beginning, it was not very popular, on the contrary, as some people mobilized against it, especially in traditional Arab societies, which considered it “contrary to customs and traditions.” Today, magic has turned against the magician, after young men and women in our societies started downloading the application and communicating through it for various reasons, most of which fall under the category of “despair and fear of the unknown.”
We will not enter into the concept of marriage on the religious and societal levels, knowing that the main goal of it today is not to find a life partner, as much as it is to search for a nationality that entitles its bearer to enter any country, or to find good job opportunities with a high salary. These obsessions pursue the majority and push them towards the virtual world to find their “request”, especially those who have been subjected to previous emotional disappointments or left halfway due to the deteriorating economic situation.
Marriage opportunities in “wholesale” for those interested!
For Rami (a pseudonym upon his request), “there is no time for love and acquaintance.” The young man in his 30s reveals, in an interview with Al-Modon, that he “meet through Tinder” a 60-year-old Australian woman, and that he is seriously considering marrying her. next year”. He says, “I studied engineering for two years at the American University of Beirut, and today, after the dollarization of tuition, I can no longer complete this dream, or in the more correct sense, afford its expenses. Also, the minimum wage does not cover the generator and internet bills. So I chose immigration as an easy way out of my problems, but the restrictions The imposed and impossible conditions at the embassies did not help me, so I had no choice but to go towards alternative options, such as marrying a foreign woman via the Internet.”
“I did not lie to her and told her everything from the beginning, and she is satisfied. Rather, she supports me with my choices, and makes every effort to facilitate my treatment at the embassy. There is a feeling inside me that has begun to arise towards her. Love is treatment and care before anything else. I am currently waiting for the visa, after which I will leave and will never look back.” Our homeland forced us to search outside, and we had nothing but obedience,” Rami tells us.
Sexual extortion and human trafficking.
Everyone has the freedom to choose a life partner as they wish, or the right not to choose at all. Our discussion today does not revolve around the choices and tendencies of some, as much as it is about the dangers and threats that herald a real societal catastrophe, as a result of some of them being drawn into the phenomenon of electronic applications, which sometimes end in sexual extortion, suicide, or even social isolation as a result of a specific incident.
“The danger of dating applications begins with their transformation from a means of communication and acquaintance into a criminal one, which includes human trafficking and sexual extortion. Here, in particular, the alarm bell must be sounded to educate users,” Rima Saliba, president of the Struggle for Human Association, confirms to Al-Modon.
She explains that “the change of times and the emergence of social media has changed many of our customs and traditions, and identifying the risks remains dependent on how the applications are used in the first place. The young group is the most using dating applications, whether in Lebanon or abroad, simply because they are more open to technology, but they are in a struggle.” without realizing it, between their desires and the traditional values of their families, which often do not encourage this kind of acquaintance and place restrictions on children to prevent them from using it, or for not imitating the West, as they think.
Saliba adds, “There is no doubt that body language and facial acquaintance are required for the success of any relationship, whether personal or professional, and this is what electronic applications lack. Knowing that some resort to it after the end of a “failed” emotional relationship.
There are also many reasons and applications, and the most important question remains: What is the electronic love tax?
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