Zainuddin Md Jaafar, who is the manager of a match-making firm based in Kuala Lumpur, said people from diverse backgrounds make up the 800 men and 700 women in his full client roster.
“These are all people who are still waiting to find their match and I sincerely want to help them as it would also help increase the number of Muslims and Malays,” he said according to the Bahasa Malaysia daily.
Many of the women in his clientele also use his services because they are professionals with a good career and feel that men tend to be afraid to approach them in normal social circles.
“Most of the women who are 28 and older have a good career and are also highly-educated. They say that men tend to be more apprehensive in making any attempt to court them, fearing that the wedding costs will be high,” Zainuddin was quoted as saying.
Zainuddin, 50, started his match-making service in 2006 and said that in his observation over the past 10 years, he found that most women prefer men who are from urban areas, such as Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.
“However, for some reason, many men prefer women from the northern states or Johor to be their wives. Maybe women from the north and Johor possess certain characteristics that men desire,” Utusan quoted him as saying.
He added, however, that the exception to this rule, is Kelantan, where most of the men and women prefer their partner to be fellow Kelantanese.
Another criteria that is looked at closely by Zainuddin is the political leanings of his clients.
He said that based on his experience, it is best to look at potential problems as well.
“I am afraid that if the political ideology differs, then there could be arguments in the household,” Zainuddin told Astro Awani in an interview last year, explaining that this can happen even if most individuals claim that political differences are not an issue when trying to build a relationship.
Aside from local Muslims, Zainuddin’s agency also has clients who are based overseas, in places such as Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Brunei. However, he said his service is not available online, and this is in order to make the right pairing based on the exact criteria of his clients.