"Women in Kashmir have been closely associated with political mobilisations for independence and continue to be victims in the ongoing cycle of violence and abuse. Sexual and physical violence has been appropriated by both security forces and militans in order to coerce, humiliate and punish women who are also subject to the roles and conditions imposed on civilians in a situation of armed conflict.[…] Yet their voices or experiences of the conflict remains absent. The invisibility of women's voices vis-à-vis the conflcit emerges from the presumption that women are external, far removed from the scene of actual combat between militants and security forces. […] There is a need to acknowledge and highlight experiences of women in the Kashmir conflict where they continue to confront and cope with psychological and physical violence, dislocation and disillusionment of a situation of war -as women and as members of a community. Equally important, policy makers must realize that women's agency is crucial in resolution of the conflict where they must be adequately represented in the decision making process."

Seema Kazi, Indian women's rights activist and member of the board of directiors of the
Association for Advocacy and Legal Initiatives

"(the book) aims to mark a moment in the history of the conflict in Kashmir and the involvement of the State and militants in it, a moment when the presence of women, whether as victims, agents, or perpetrators, can no longer be ignored, a moment which makes it clear that any initiative for peace and resolution of the conflict must take women into account and involve them centrally, a moment at which the women's movement must rethink its involvement with such questions."

Urvashi Butalia, editor of "Speaking Peace, Women's Voices from Kashmir," 2002