The silkworm grows from a tiny egg weighing half a milligram to 10,000 times its original weight in just one month. In Lebanon, the silkworm breeding was a woman's responsibility. The task included receiving the eggs, the gathering of cocoons as well as the feeding, surveillance, and handling of silkworms. That's why, in villages, they say that a woman who breeds caterpillars "tshil harir, tshil azz".

(Aida KANAFANI-ZAHAR, The Sheep and the Mulberry Tree).