Iran Launches Online Dating App As Country's Population Decreases

The Hamdan dating app offers matching and counseling services for potential partners and their families. (photo: Alexander Sinn / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Iran recently launched a dating app that aims to facilitate lasting marriages in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In recent years, the country's divorce rate has increased and the birth rate has declined.

Hamdan, which means "companion" in Persian, was developed by a body that is part of the Islamic Propaganda Organization. The app claims to use artificial intelligence to find matches only for bachelors who are looking for a permanent marriage and only want to have one wife.

Many dating apps are popular in Iran, but from now on only Hamdan is legal. Iranian law also criminalizes sexual relations outside of marriage.

Reuters reported, Wednesday, July 21, to be able to use this application, Hamdan requires users to verify their identity, perform psychological compatibility tests and provide advice for young singles looking for a marriage partner.

In addition, Hamdan also offers matching and counseling services for potential partners and their families. The two couples will continue to be in touch with Hamdan for four years after marriage.

The country bans western-style dating and is registered under Iran's Islamic law, but many young people reject traditional matchmaking and want to decide their own future.

Citing BBC International, the head of the Tebyan Institute of Culture, which developed Hamdan, said the app would create a healthy family at a time when family values were threatened by "Satan" and Iran's enemies.

According to statistics from the National Organization for Civil Registry, about 307,300 marriages and 99,600 divorces were registered in Iran between March and December 2020. In 2008, there was one divorce for every eight marriages. Meanwhile, Iran's annual population growth fell to 1.29 percent in 2020.

Officials have expressed concern that Iran's population could become one of the oldest in the world in two decades after fertility rates among Iranian women fell 25 percent over the past four years. The fertility rate is about 1.7 children per woman.

Therefore, Iran began changing its family planning policy a decade ago, making contraceptives, which had been available for free, gradually becoming increasingly difficult to obtain.

Iran's parliament has also passed provisions to provide financial incentives for childbirth and marriage, including loans and grants to young married couples with several children.