@mkpetkova
RADICAL TRADITION? Emilia Pechinkova, a member of Bulgaria’s Muslim Pomak minority, is prepared for her wedding. Under communism, religious rituals like this were banned.
NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP/GETTY
THERE AREN’T many students at Sofia University who wear a hijab, so 20-year-old Aishe Emin’s stands out. Since she moved to the Bulgarian capital two years ago, her veil has attracted unwelcome attention. But in recent months, she’s received more hostile comments and stares. Her husband, Mustafa, who also attends the university, has a beard and prays regularly; some of his fellow students, he says, consider him “radical” for doing so.