After our visit to Samia Saab and our research on Oya, could it still be possible to find Oya in Maghdouche? I haven't seen any black widow since years, not even any old woman wearing a Mandeel anymore! ...But whom to ask about Oya? ...for sure, Let us ask Jamal !!!
Jamal is our neighbour and guardian angel when we are in Beit el Founoun. She offers us juice or a cup of coffee whenever she has time or needs to have a little rest...
... and when we asked her about Oya, she just dissappeared for a while and came back with her mother's Oya (Zakieh) that she kept for years after her mother's death.
She proudly and full with emotions, showed us how to wear it on the head and the correct way for knobbing it.
It was not the best Oya we have seen, not after seeing the big collection of Samia Saab, but it was an Oya coming from old Maghdouche, and that was what made it special. Besides, the wood prints on the textile attracted our curiosityand attention to a possible traditional art technique that dissappeared with the time.
From my childhood, I remember Zakieh wearing her mandeel. It might be this one or another one. It does not matter. What matters now is that we are on the right track and that, by highlighting such thing, our satisfaction is enormous.
