Juggling between the hot ovens at her workshop in a Qalyoubiya village and a posh store in an upscale Cairo neighbourhood, glassblower Aphrodite Wassim, 32, is vowing to preserve a dying craft.
"I was told that women are not allowed inside the factory. You give us the design, and we make it for you. But for you to stand there and watch, will cause a problem for us. I was told that I wouldn't be able to handle it and that I would get hurt", said Aphrodite.
"They looked at me differently. They thought I was weak. I wondered why they would look at me this way when the first person to teach me this craft was a woman."
"I meet a lot of clients who can't believe that I do this work on my own. They think that I send the designs to factories. They are so surprised when I tell them I can do this with my own hands, and they wonder how I can stand in front of an oven."
"I was once in a bazaar, and I had to show them pictures of me in the workshop glass blowing and standing in front of the oven. And they put on some videos so that they would believe that a woman in Egypt can do this work."
