Community Guidelines

These guidelines apply to everyone on the platform — men, women, and walis.

Why These Guidelines Exist

Wali is built around one purpose: helping serious Muslims find a spouse with dignity, privacy, and family involvement. That purpose only works if every person on the platform treats it — and everyone in it — with the same seriousness and respect they would want for themselves and their family.

These guidelines are not a list of rules written by lawyers. They are a description of how this community works. If you would be embarrassed for your family to see what you wrote or did on this platform, it does not belong here.

We enforce these guidelines through a combination of automated systems and human review. Actions range from a warning to a permanent ban. The goal is not to punish — it is to protect the people on this platform who are genuinely here for marriage.

Part 1 — The Spirit of This Platform

This is a serious place.

Wali is not a dating app, a social network, or an entertainment platform. Everyone here has indicated they are looking for a spouse. Treat every interaction accordingly. The person you are speaking with, or whose profile you are viewing, is a real person with a family, a faith, and a life. Approach them the way you would want someone to approach your own daughter, sister, or son.

Intention matters.

You confirmed during signup that you are here for sincere marriage purposes. That confirmation is binding. If your intention changes, please deactivate your account rather than continuing to interact with people who are still here for that purpose.

Family involvement is valued, not tolerated.

The wali system is not a constraint or an unusual feature. It reflects a mainstream Islamic understanding of how marriage works. If you disagree with that model, this platform is not the right fit for you. Trying to circumvent a wali, pressure a woman to communicate outside the platform, or persuade her to disable family oversight is a serious violation.

Modesty is the default.

Every choice in this platform — hidden photos, private names, supervised chats — is designed to support modesty. Your behavior should match that design. Keep your language appropriate for a conversation you would have in front of elders. Keep your photos appropriate for a family to see.

Part 2 — What We Require From Every User

Truthfulness

• Your name, age, marital status, and location must be accurate
• Your profile photos must be real, unaltered, recent photos of you
• Your bio and questionnaire responses must reflect who you actually are, not who you want to appear to be
• If your circumstances change — particularly marital status — you must update your profile or deactivate your account

Respect

• Address other users the way you would want to be addressed
• Accept rejection graciously — a rejection is not a personal attack and does not warrant a response
• Do not send repeated messages or requests after someone has declined or blocked you
• Do not make comments about a person's appearance, ethnicity, or religious practice that you have not been asked to make

Serious Intent

• Only send a match request to someone you have genuinely reviewed and are seriously considering as a potential spouse
• Do not mass-request everyone in the discovery feed — it wastes everyone's time and signals bad intent
• If you open a conversation, engage thoughtfully. A person's family may be watching and hoping this is the right match

Privacy of Others

• Do not share another user's profile, photos, messages, or any other information outside the platform without their explicit consent
• Screenshots of other users' content are strongly discouraged and may constitute a violation if shared externally
• The fact that someone is on this platform is private information. Do not disclose their presence here to others without their permission

Part 3 — Prohibited Conduct

The following are violations of these guidelines. Severity is noted. Some are zero-tolerance: a single incident results in a permanent ban.

Zero-Tolerance Violations — Single Incident Results in Permanent Ban

These violations are not subject to warnings or escalating review. A confirmed single incident ends your account permanently and may be reported to law enforcement.

• Sending or requesting sexually explicit content of any kind, to anyone, in any part of the platform
• Any conduct suggesting grooming, predatory behavior, or targeting of vulnerable individuals
• Submitting fraudulent, fake, or altered identity documents during verification
• Impersonating another person — real or fictional — in your profile, verification, or communications
• Using this platform to solicit money, financial assistance, or commercial services from other users
• Creating or maintaining a second account after being permanently banned
• Any attempt to involve a minor in any interaction on this platform
• Sharing another user's private information, photos, or communications outside the platform without their consent (doxxing)

Serious Violations — May Result in Permanent Ban or Extended Restriction

• Harassment: continuing to contact someone after they have declined or blocked you; sending aggressive, threatening, or intimidating messages
• Misrepresenting your marital status — claiming to be single when you are married, or failing to disclose a prior marriage where relevant
• Sharing external contact information — phone numbers, social media handles, email — before the platform's communication system permits it
• Attempting to bypass, disable, or manipulate the wali system — including pressuring a woman to remove her wali, communicating outside the app to avoid wali visibility, or misrepresenting yourself to a wali
• Deliberate use of misleading, heavily filtered, or outdated profile photos
• Creating a duplicate account after a temporary restriction
• Using the platform for any commercial purpose — advertising a business, recruiting, promoting services
• Coordinating with someone outside the platform to manipulate reviews, reports, or the verification process

Standard Violations — Warning First, Then Escalation

• Sending messages that are rude, dismissive, or disrespectful even if not explicitly threatening
• Sharing external links of any kind — to websites, social profiles, or third-party platforms — without platform authorization
• Attempting to move a conversation off-platform before the platform's communication system permits external contact
• Excessive match requests sent indiscriminately without genuine review of profiles
• Profile content that is clearly incomplete, low-effort, or deceptive in tone even if technically accurate
• Discussing or soliciting information about dowry, financial expectations, or mahr in a way that is coercive, transactional, or disrespectful
• Group chat content that promotes division, sectarianism, or disparages other users' religious practices

Part 4 — Photo Standards

Photos are a sensitive part of this platform. The following rules apply to all photos, including profile photos and any photos shared in chat.

• Photos must be genuine, unaltered photographs of you — no AI-generated images, no heavily filtered images that materially change your appearance
• Photos must be modest — appropriate for a family-oriented platform, suitable to show to an elder or parent
• Photos must not include other people unless they have consented — this protects your family members' privacy as much as theirs
• Photos must not include identifying background information that could expose your address, workplace, or precise location without your intent
• You must be the primary subject of your photos — group photos or photos where you are not clearly identifiable may be removed
• Photos are blurred by default. A woman's photos are not visible to men until a reveal is mutually approved. This is a platform feature designed to support modesty and it must not be circumvented
• Saving, screenshotting, or distributing another user's photos outside the platform is a serious violation regardless of whether those photos were shared with you voluntarily

Part 5 — Wali and Community Group Standards

For Walis

Being a wali on this platform carries responsibility. Your access to conversations is a trust extended to you by the person you are guiding — and by the other parties in those conversations who have agreed to your presence.

• Use your access and authority for the genuine benefit of the person in your care — not to control, punish, or satisfy personal preferences unrelated to their wellbeing
• Do not use your access to gather information about other users for purposes unrelated to the match in question
• Do not share conversation content you have access to as a wali with third parties outside the platform without the ward's consent
• Do not abuse approval authority — repeatedly blocking every potential match without genuine assessment harms the person you are supposed to be helping
• If you disagree with a match, communicate your reasons privately and respectfully to your ward. The platform is not the place to conduct that discussion with the prospective match directly

For Community Groups

• Community groups are for walis to coordinate and support marriage efforts — not for debates, arguments, or general socializing
• Profile sharing in groups requires explicit consent from the person whose profile is being shared — every time, for every group. There are no exceptions
• No photos of people are permitted in group chats
• No discussion of financial arrangements — dowry, mahr, living arrangements — in group chats. These conversations belong between families, not in a platform group
• Group admins are responsible for the conduct of their group. If your group repeatedly violates these guidelines, it will be dissolved and members will be flagged

Part 6 — How We Handle Violations

A restriction means you cannot send new match requests, start new conversations, or appear in discovery. You retain access to your existing conversations and can still complete account management and deletion.

A permanent ban means your account is deactivated and your phone number is blocked from re-registration. The ban is not reversed by creating a new account — a new account created after a ban is also banned.

Actions taken on accounts during an investigation — including temporary suspension pending review — do not appear on your account record if the investigation finds no violation.

Part 7 — Reporting a Violation

If something feels wrong, report it. You will not be penalized for making a good-faith report even if we find no violation.

• Tap the three-dot menu on any profile, message, or chat and select "Report"
• Choose the category that best describes what you saw
• Add any context in your own words — up to 200 characters
• You may optionally block the person at the same time
• We will review your report and notify you of the outcome within 48 hours for standard reports; within 4 hours for anything involving harassment or a suspected underage user
• You will not be told the specific action taken against the reported user, but you will be told whether we found a violation and took action

Emergency Situations

If you believe you are in immediate danger, call your local emergency services. The platform cannot be used as an emergency communication system. If someone on the platform has threatened you with physical harm, please report that to law enforcement and then report it to us as well.

Part 8 — Appeals

If you believe a moderation action taken against your account was a mistake, you can appeal it.

• Tap "Appeal this decision" on the account status screen or moderation notification
• Select the reason: Mistaken identity / Context misunderstood / AI error / Other
• Write a brief explanation in your own words — up to 500 characters
• A different reviewer — not the one who made the original decision — will review your appeal
• Permanent ban appeals are reviewed within 48 hours. Temporary restriction appeals within 72 hours. Warning appeals within 5 business days
• You may submit one appeal per moderation action. Submitting repeated frivolous appeals affects your trust score

The following cannot be appealed through our moderation system:

• Another user's decision to reject your request or block you — those are personal choices, not moderation decisions
• A wali's decisions within the scope of their permitted authority

Part 9 — A Note on AI Moderation

We use automated AI systems to scan messages in real time. These systems are not perfect. They may occasionally flag a legitimate message — a culturally specific phrase, a religious term, or a word that has multiple meanings. If a message you sent is blocked and you believe it should not have been, you can appeal that specific AI decision through the appeals process. We read every appeal and the AI's decision is never final for account-level consequences.

Part 10 — Contact

Questions about these guidelines: izharbid@walimarriage.com

Wali Marriage LLC operates under the assumed name "Wali Marriage." Both names refer to the same legal entity.

These guidelines are reviewed and updated periodically. You will be notified of material changes through the app.