UPDATED ON:
Sunday, February 01, 2009
17:55 Mecca time, 14:55 GMT
 
Programmes WITNESS
Clerical Cupid

To watch part two click here

Filmmaker: Leila Lak

In Iran like anywhere else in the world one of the major preoccupations of young people is to find a partner and to get married. 

But in country where the different sexes are not allowed to mix freely, meeting Mister or Misses Right is not easy.

In Iran it is not cupid wielding his quiver of romance tipped arrows that young lovers turn to, but a young friendly Muslim cleric.

Jafar Ardabili runs the Amin International Family and Cultural Institute, which is Iran's first officially sanctioned internet dating agency.

The perspective couples are allowed three meetings. Two meetings are under the strict supervision inside the centre and a third brief encounter on their own. After that they either marry or never see each other again.

Iranian filmmaker Leila Lak went to meet the clerical cupid and talk to some of his customers to see first hand if his methods work.

 Source: Al Jazeera
 
 
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