Dating in Pakistan is a complex and newly emerging concept. Pakistan mostly comprises of Muslim people from rural areas and conservatives belonging to middle class society. They all look down upon this new phenomena evolving in our Islamic country. Many areas of Pakistan are liberal in their approach such as Lahore in Punjab and Karachi in Sindh. On the other hand, in many western parts of Pakistan like the N.W.F.P and Baluchistan you will find age old tribal customs which prohibit this liberalism.
Dating begins and blooms in certain places, like colleges and universities. Love blossoms while studying together and finally after a few years the couple might consider marriage the traditional way. This means that the boy's family finally shows up at the girl's home for the proposal. This leads to engagement ceremony and eventually marriage. Though there is nothing evidently wrong with this sort of marriage arrangement but our religion Islam does not permit mixing of men and women for the purpose of romance. Many people oppose this growing liberalism. They claim that this phenomenon arises from the West. We as Muslims should not follow in the footsteps of the western culture and traditions. Even Indian media is responsible to quite some extent for promoting this concept through their movies which portray love, dating and other such notions commonly. They leave a deep impression on youngsters mind.
Online dating
Online dating is revolutionizing the social scene in Pakistan. Since not many social opportunities are available to the young generation, they are resorting to the dating over the Internet. Internet access in Pakistan is steadily growing at one of the fastest rates in Asia and finding love is becoming easier. It is gaining popularity because of mobility issues for many females in the country. Online dating has helped people in Pakistan to take a new turn where people have the freedom to choose and to arrange dates online first before finally arranging a romantic encounter.
Conclusion
Our society still considers this socially unacceptable and unethical. Friend ship is acceptable but with in limits. Religion, moral values, culture and social setup of our country does not allow us to practice this norm. Being a Muslim myself, I feel we must condemn this sort of activity in public places. Our religion does not permit such western influences; therefore we must abide by it. The correct approach to a successful relationship would be when the parents of both the boy and the girl are involved to settle and make decisions regarding the future of their children. We, as Muslims, should realize and respect our parents� decisions to search for a genuine and suitable life partner. It is this blind faith and trust that we bestow upon our parents that makes our religion superior and above the rest.