Relationships

My name is Thanna Alghabban. The year is 2015 and the year I will be celebrating my 28thBirthday. This year is also the year I married my soulmate and best friend, the year we found out I was pregnant,

Watching my sisters go through the rishta process I discovered that so many men were utterly unpleasant personalities, even in the company of their parents. Describing her own experiences, one successful

Since I got married last October, I’ve been thinking a lot about divorce. Not in a “serving papers” way, but in the sense that nothing is impossible and it’s good to be prepared. Divorce is something that

To a frustrated single person, life can often feel like this: And at first glance, research seems to back this up, suggesting that married people are on average happier than single people and much happier

Islam teaches that marriage is the cornerstone of society, but negotiating religious, cultural and emotional spheres makes finding a suitor a tricky task. Online dating services, specifically designed “Young Muslims are open-minded. They expect to get to know someone before committing. They want more control and more say in the process. They are no longer willing to outsource this part of their life journey to their parents.” Shahzad Younas, creator of the Muzz app”

Muzz, marriage websites, rishta aunties, suggestions from friends, suggestions from family. No wonder why those searching for marriage are SO overwhelmed, getting married seems to get tougher as the years

After Ramadan last year me and my girls made a bit of a pact to become a bit more pro-active on the partner search. So we made a pact to join Muzz (although I outdid them and joined every app possible)!\I’ve

Normally I wouldn’t par-take in the self indulgence of claiming to know what’s wrong with everyone by enforcing my irrelevant opinion of entire people based on my experience with a relatively low number

“Zayn, I need to talk to you.” When a close friend who’s just been married or is deciding to texts me those words, I fill equally with a sense of understanding and dread. After letting her know an approximate time of when my son will choose to take his nap that afternoon so we can talk, I go about getting things done and thinking of the girl I’m going to be listening to soon. I think of everything I know of her, and everything she’s told me about the person she’s chosen or may be choosing to spend the rest of her life with. Then I mentally kick myself for having unwittingly assumed the role of marriage advisor and wonder at what exact point in time I became one. How do I advise someone about what marriage is going to be like or what to think of/do about/how to navigate through a usual/unusual marital situation, when I am barely 6 years old in marriage, will never really know the minutest details of their sticky situation (like the weather that day, if there were any changes in the flavor of their usual breakfast drink, which angle the MIL’s eyes were positioned at that exact moment to better determine her intentions, if his colleague had finally hit the wrong nerve, etc.) and who they and their husbands really become within the four walls of their house?

I am a young and independent Muslim woman searching for a potential spouse. My very close friends can tell you how they remember from the day we met how much I wanted to get married. I was as young as

Can religious Muslims choose to wait for love or must they settle down with the most practical match? We all grapple with this question, especially if we hit our late 20s and have not yet married. What

I’m a single Muslim in my 30’s. Me and my friends are actively looking for partners, while my friends have been far more proactive and open to the whole online world, me personally, never really felt it

So here it goes.. When I was planning on getting married I had in the bank a grand total of £300. The fee to get married (for the Imaam in ELM to do the nikaah) £100.. that leaves me with £200. The dowry

Dear Happily Married SuperMum, Hi there. You already know me so I won’t go into too much depth describing myself: I’m basically the antithesis of everything you are – the all-too visible single brown elephant

Muslims can’t really date in the common sense of the word. There’s plenty of mystery surrounding the weird nature of what really happens in the Muslim dating sphere – a strange, unknown place, possibly

Last week we celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. Ours was an arranged marriage, and I had not even seen his picture before saying yes to him. Sounds so backwards, eh?! I didn’t see his picture because

Dear 25 year old single girl, Following on from the letter to all 25 year old Arab/Asian guys here is her letter to the single ladies. Congratulations! You’ve completed your degree, landed yourself a stellar

And as we know from before, Tina Turner put it even more bluntly in the next line of her hit song: “What’s love but a second-hand emotion?” You have to give it to song-writers: they really do express the truth sometimes in remarkably effective fashion.