A 26-year-old German doctor, identified as Selma, has travelled to Pakistan’s Mandi Bahauddin district to marry a 22-year-old man, Muhammad Akmal, whom she first met while playing the online game Roblox. Their story, which transitioned from a digital friendship to a real-life marriage, has attracted international attention on social and mainstream media.
According to an interview with My News TV, Selma, who holds dual German and Bosnian citizenship, and Muhammad Akmal began communicating while playing Roblox, an online gaming platform, around five months before their marriage. Their interaction reportedly began as casual in-game communication and later developed into regular messaging.
Akmal told he proposed early in their acquaintance, and following some deliberation Selma decided to travel to Pakistan to formalize their relationship. The wedding was held in Akmal’s home village of Difaar in the Mandi Bahauddin district of Punjab province with the consent and support of both families. The reported cost of travel and the ceremony was approximately PKR 4.5 million.
Upon arriving in Pakistan, Selma described adapting to aspects of rural village life that were new to her. She mentioned initial unfamiliarity with tasks such as washing clothes and dishes by hand and making traditional flatbread (rotis), which she gradually learned over time.
To integrate into her new environment and communicate effectively with her husband’s family and community, Selma has begun learning Punjabi and Urdu. She stated that she is happy to stay in Pakistan with Akmal and embrace the cultural and linguistic changes involved.
Both Selma and Akmal have expressed contentment with their married life. Akmal stated that their families were fully supportive of the union and that the couple are enjoying life together with mutual respect.
Research on modern romantic partnerships indicates that online connections are increasingly a source of long-term relationships and marriages, in part because digital meeting platforms allow individuals to communicate broadly and match on shared interests before meeting in person. A study by the University of Chicago1 found that couples who met online reported slightly higher marital satisfaction and lower rates of breakups compared with those who met offline, possibly due to the larger pool of partners and focused pre-relationship communication afforded by online interactions.
In an era of globalization and interconnected digital networks, some of these relationships evolve into transnational marriages, defined as unions between partners from different countries. Transnational marriage reflects broader social mobility and increased cross-border contact; it involves complexities such as cultural and language differences and potential legal and citizenship considerations that couples navigate when building life together across national boundaries.
Together, these trends suggest that relationships initiated online can lead to enduring partnerships, even when they cross international borders, blending personal, cultural, and technological influences.
References
University of Chicago News. 2024. “Meeting Online Leads to Happier, More Enduring Marriages.” University of Chicago News, August 6, 2024. https://news.uchicago.edu/story/meeting-online-leads-happier-more-enduring-marriages.
Psychology Today. 2023. “Unpacking the Online Dating Effect.” Psychology Today, October 2023. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dating-in-the-digital-age/202310/unpacking-the-online-dating-effect?msockid=1e8d7f29de63685112f16a33df65695d.
Mark Travers. 2024. “3 Reasons Why Dating Online Can Create Lasting Marriages, by a Psychologist.” Forbes, August 6, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2024/08/06/3-reasons-why-dating-online-can-create-lasting-marriages-by-a-psychologist/.
Encyclopedia.pub. 2026. “Transnational Marriage.” Encyclopedia.pub, accessed January 2026. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/28035.
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