Window on Eurasia

New Site Helps Muslim Women in Russia Find Muslim
Husbands Abroad

Paul Goble

Vienna, June 16, 2006 – Muslim women in the Russian Federation who would like to marry Muslim men abroad can now turn to the first such website that seeks not only to facilitate marriages of this type but also to promote Islamic family values, acccording to one of its organizers.

In an interview posted online this week, Ali – not further identified
– said that he launched this site three months ago because many
Muslim women in Russia want to find husbands abroad and many Muslim men in the Middle East are interested in marrying them
[https://ec.ut.ee/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.islam.ru/woman/zarubnik/ints4/?print_page].

This site supplements rather than duplicates sites like Islam.ru’s
own marriage agency that seeks to facilitate marriages between Muslim women and Muslim men living in the Russian Federation, Ali said, because itprovides help only to those who want such „international”
marriages.

Asked why Muslim women in Russia might be interested in marrying Muslim men from abroad, Ali listed ten reasons that he believes are the most compelling. First, he said, many Muslim women in Russia feel that they are threatened and see marriage to a Muslim abroad as a way out of a difficult situation.

Second, they are concerned about the fate of their children, fearing
that conditions in Russia may get worse for Muslims before they get
better. Third, many of them would like to live where there is an
Islamic majority rather than remain in the status of a minority. Fourth, some believe that they will be able by living abroad to improve
their knowledge of the faith.

Fifth, many are driven by a love of the Arab language. Sixth, they are
uncertain about their futures. Seventh, there are always „economic
considerations,” with many Muslim women assuming they will live
better abroad than in Russia. Eighth, there is exoticism. Ninth, prestige. And tenth – and Ali says that this is far from the last cause – love
itself.

As far as possible objections by Muslim men in Russia that this site
was contributing to the departure of Muslim women from their own community, Ali said that any Russian Muslim who makes that objection has only himself to blame for the fact that some Muslim women are looking abroad rather than closer to home.

The site, which has Russian, Turkish, English and Arabic language
pages, helps to link up the two groups to which it appeals by providing
photographs (in Islamic garb) and information about those seeking
husbands and those seeking wives and even translations for those who
need it
[https://ec.ut.ee/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.nikahrus.com/].

But few avail themselves of this last service because, Ali notes,
„the majority of the participants besides Russian also know English and
certain even know Arabic and Turkish.” As a result, they are in a
position to correspond with each other once they are given their
email addresses.

Those who want to be listed are asked to fill out an extensive
questionnaire, one that Ali said allows the site’s operators to
screen out those who do not meet its criteria. But he acknowledged that „we do not test; we trust,” something that may explain the relatively
small number of people that the site itself reports have visited it up
to now.

So far, this new Internet service has not been able to claim that its
efforts have led to the conclusion of a single marriage, but Ali said
that he not only hoped to be able to point to several by the end of
this summer but remained convinced that a site like his, because of its
Islamic character, was promoting the interests of the world-wide umma.