Cyber relationships are nothing new to Egyptians. Gone are the days when the only matchmaker was a mother or aunt. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Egyptians used AOL, MSN, and Facebook chats to pursue dating. In today’s Egypt, online dating primarily takes place through mobile applications such as Tinder, Bumble, and MuzzMatch, which allow individuals to look for potential love interests by swiping through profiles: right if they like what they see, or left if they don’t. When Tinder arrived on the scene in 2012, it created Egypt’s first true ‘online dating app’ community. Today, however, a 10-minute swipe spree into the application makes it evident that, in Egypt’s case, the application is a cesspool of fake accounts and crude images. Tinder itself is not the issue. Egyptian online dating culture, as a whole, is often stigmatized for violating traditional matchmaking norms which rely on trusted adults and families helping younger generations in their quest for marriage. As a result, Tinder has become misconstrued as an application for sexual gratification, despite some of its users seeking genuine connections. “This is one of the biggest issues in Egypt, whether…
