THE LILY - Jan 11 - Eshq ("love" in Persian) is a new dating app aimed at young Muslim women. By allowing the woman to "make the first move," the app, which is currently in beta, hopes to remove the stigma of dating in the Muslim world. Its founder, Mariam Bahawdory (29), launched the app while she was in graduate school. She had no dating experience growing up in Raleigh, N.C. When it came time for her to "settle down," per her Afghan family's tradition, the options were limited. After a failed engagement at 25, she found online dating to be her only real prospect. Ishqr doesn't show users potential matches' face, mimicking the ritual of old-school blind dating. Users login through Facebook. From there, the app uses a matching algorithm that picks out similarities between profiles. Its drawing feature is that it only allows the woman to start the conversation after a match.
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