Iran launches national matchmaking website

According to state estimates, the birthrate in Iran is around 1.8 children per woman — too low to be sustainable. Last year, the nation banned vasectomies and permanent forms of birth control in women in an effort to encourage pregnancies. And now, Iran has launched its own state-run matchmaking website with the goal of making 100,000 marriages in the next year.

On Hamsan.Tebyan.net, singles can list what they're looking for in a potential spouse. A board of mediators then reviews the applicants and makes decisions based on age, education, wealth, family background, level of faith, and religion. The government hopes that its website will help singles make connections and find spouses more comfortably, as they have increasingly eschewed the tradition of being set up by familial and local matchmakers.

Unlike the roughly 350 Iranian private matchmaking sites — all of which are officially banned in the country — Hamsan.Tebaynan.net is meant strictly for spouse-searching, and not for dating. "The matchmaking website you are seeing today is not a website for introducing boys and girls to each other," Deputy Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Mahmoud Golzari said.

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