About shofa.social
shofa.social is a web app that turns local cafes into meeting points for marriage-minded Muslim singles who live nearby.
Why it exists
Many young British Muslims spend their evenings in dessert lounges, chai and karak houses, Yemeni coffee houses and halal bakeries, alcohol-free rooms on the high street where they live. People see each other there and rarely say anything.
Apps tend to mean long chats with people who may live far away, behind photos they chose and filtered themselves. Ticketed events come round on set dates. Family introductions depend on who knows whom. shofa.social adds a first meeting at a cafe you already know, with someone who was in the same cafe, after you've both waved.
How it's built around the cafe
The cafe is the third party. People look like their profiles because staff take every photo in the cafe. Members check in by scanning the code on the counter. They meet at the cafe's shofa table, in public. A chaperone, whether a family member or a friend, can come along without an account.
Members pay for one photoshoot at the cafe's own till, at a price the cafe sets (we suggest £5). Cafes pay shofa.social £10 a month per branch and £2.50 a shoot. What customers pay at the till stays with the cafe.
Who runs it
The company details and a short note from the founder will be added here before launch.
The first partner cafes haven't been announced yet. The cafes on this site and the drawn street on Whitechapel Road are examples.