Cultural critic Sabahat Zakariya criticizes how the digital age exposes marital infidelity and highlights the common presence of married men on dating apps, blaming deep-rooted social problems and a sense of entitlement that lets them seek validation and emotional needs outside marriage.
Zakariya recently appeared in a podcast conversation with Aftab on women, art, culture, identity, and relationships.
She expressed that her observation regarding married men and dating apps stems from the experiences shared by women who were connected to Zakariya, particularly during her research for a potential book on single Pakistani women and through a WhatsApp group she operates for Pakistani single mothers.
The experiences conveyed by the women suggest that men frequently base their interactions on lies while engaging in online dating.
A significant observation is that many men pretend they are not married at all. While talking to the host, she stated that based on the experiences she heard, 99% of men are married and are active on dating apps.
Since there is a possibility of polygamy in Pakistan (where a man can marry more than one woman), some women get involved believing that this arrangement might be acceptable or that a relationship might materialize.
Divorced women are particularly targeted and “dangled” with lies because they are perceived to be, and often are, more vulnerable when they are not attached to a man in Pakistan.
This behavior is linked to a wider context of hypocrisy in Pakistani society, which Zakariya views as the main engine driving social interactions.
