(El País) Up until January 2017, Cristina B. was like any other young woman in Cullera, a small town in the Spanish region of Valencia. On social media, the 24-year-old was seen dressed as a fallera, wearing an elaborate traditional dress used during Valencia’s famous Las Fallas festival. There are also pictures of her in sports competitions, going out with friends and sharing romantic moments with someone who appeared to be her partner at the time.
But for the past 11 months, she had been known in her town as “the woman in black.” She had swapped the colorful trims, ribbons and petticoats of the fallera dress for a niqab, which only allowed her almond-shaped eyes to be seen. It was a change that did not go unnoticed by her family, or her friends or even the rest of the town, which is home to 22,000 people. It was someone from Cullera who alerted the police: “She is the only person who dresses like that.”
