Muzz, Dil Ka Rishta and Bumble: How rishta apps are reshaping matchmaking in Pakistan
Waseem and Ezza met on a rishta app in 2022 and were married within a year — a sequence of events that for many in Pakistan resembles a traditional rishta outcome, but which started online rather than in a drawing room. Their story, first published in Dawn, EOS, highlights how a new wave of matchmaking platforms is being used as an alternative to conventional intermediaries such as family networks and rishta aunties.
For decades Pakistan’s marriage market has been dominated by arranged processes: families, professional matchmakers and intergenerational expectations. A 2024 survey by Gallup and Gilani Pakistan shows over 80 percent of Pakistanis still marry through the arranged route. Yet, as Waseem observes, many people struggle with the system and end up relying on middlemen who “don’t even give them good rishtas and instead provide rishtas according to ‘monetary packages.’”
That frustration is one driver behind rising interest in digital alternatives. For years Facebook rishta groups and, for a time, apps such as Tinder — popular between 2018 and 2020 before a 2020 ban — expanded people’s options. More recently, platforms marketed specifically for Muslim users, including Muzz and Dil Ka Rishta, have positioned themselves as “for marriage purposes only.” Their messaging aims to appeal to users who reject casual dating but want more agency and wider social circles.
From rishta aunties to app filters
Ezza’s own experience underscores what these platforms promise: after a fraught process of family meetings, judgement and paid matchmakers, she found that an app gave her more control. She notes practical privacy features — “One good benefit is you can blur your pictures,” she says — and fewer family-driven emotional entanglements when matches fail. For her, the digital route removed some of the humiliation she associated with in-person rishta meetings.
Muzz’s Pakistan marketing lead, Nayab Nazir, describes the product as removing the middle person and enabling users to apply filters for religion, sect, education and location so “parents and their children can sit together and feel like they’re all a part of the process.” Dil Ka Rishta has similarly emphasised privacy with a VIP Matchmaking Service, where users avoid public profiles and work privately with a consultant to curate compatible candidates.
Autonomy, safety and mixed results
Proponents say these platforms can increase autonomy, particularly for older or divorced women who face stigma in traditional channels. Sara* and Aliya* — both cited in the original reporting — describe instances where app-based matches led to positive outcomes, including remarriage for formerly divorced users.
But several interviewees warn that the apps are not a panacea. Users report encountering insincere profiles, harassment and mismatched expectations. Sara found many people on the app “quite strange,” and Aisha* left an app after a month because the matches she received felt inappropriate despite verification steps. Momin*, now based in Dubai, was disappointed to find profiles of people he believed were already in relationships.
Platform teams recognise these pitfalls. Nazir says education is part of Muzz’s outreach, teaching users which questions to ask and urging caution before trusting a match too quickly. Dil Ka Rishta’s CEO Mir Ishaq Rehman frames their VIP model as combining algorithmic matching with human consultants to improve compatibility and trust, while acknowledging critics who liken the service to digitally mediated rishta auntie work.
Deeper cultural limits
Observers caution that digitising the rishta process cannot, by itself, resolve the deeper cultural dynamics that shape matchmaking in Pakistan. Psychotherapist Shifa Lodhi notes therapists are seeing clients harmed by ghosting, rushed decisions and the emotional toll of app interactions. “The cultural tension is the same at the root,” she says, adding that while apps may expand options, they can also “dehumanise the entire process” by turning partners into checklist items.
Indeed, some of the same patriarchal expectations that complicate traditional rishta culture — demanding jahaiz, rigid family-care expectations, and social judgement — often follow users online. As Aliya points out, the apps have even reached older generations and matchmakers, blurring lines between new technology and entrenched practices.
Waseem, Ezza and others celebrate the matches they made online but acknowledge the limitations: platforms can widen possibilities and offer more autonomy, yet they do not automatically eliminate the structural and cultural obstacles that make finding a partner difficult for many Pakistanis.
Name changes were used to protect privacy. The author of the original piece is a journalist and founder of Echoes Media; their X handle appears in the original reporting as @anmolirfan22.
