For the Beni Ouarain 'taritat' or 'tarredat' veil, documentation is more difficult and complex. Here again Rabaté assumes a dealer’s conspiracy to deceive naïve collectors. She states that counterfeit examples are easy to identify since the basic fabric is of recent origin, in good condition, with both lateral borders and fringes intact, whereas the ground fabric of authentic older pieces has been cut from a much larger wrapping cloth, and should thus show cut edges. In support of this argument she cites a 1938 article by Marcel Vicaire, the former Directeur des Arts Indigènes au Maroc, in which he describes the manufacture of these headscarves, mentioning that the ground fabric is usually cut from old wrapping cloths (“Le tissu, en mousseline de laine, armure toile, est généralement un vieux 'haïk dans lequel la femme coupe un rectangle d'environ 1 mètre sur 1 mètre 30”).

Where objects are traded at high prices, when a product becomes sufficiently profitable, forgeries can appear. But it is unacceptable, and highly counterproductive, to assume overall imposture and counterfeiting, without detailed knowledge of the matter. Recent copies of these headscarves exist that attempt to imitate the technical and aesthetic qualities of the original old textiles on the market, and at least some of them were made from recently produced materials. But it’s also true that authentic textiles of this group exist. Condition alone cannot provide reliable information about the true age of the piece.

It is apparent that during her ‘research’, Rabaté had access to very few pieces, all in good condition, which she found suspicious. At least a couple of dozen authentic headscarves from the Ahel Telt region from about 1900 and 1950 are known to survive, as well as a similar number of wrapping cloths (arab. 'haïk'), a larger quantity of attendant headbands, and many shoulder covers or shawls of the 'tabrdouhte' or 'tabbnoute' type, which continued to be made in the traditional manner up to the late 1970s (3) - (19).