Speaking Peace

Kashmir has been, for some years, a key issue on the Indian political map. More than a decade of conflict has deeply affected people’s livelihoods and living environments, their health, their eating habits, their work and workplaces, their access to education. The impact of these things is felt most sharply in the lives of women, and yet, few discussions on Kashmir pay attention to this. The book reflects the range of women’s experiences in this conflict. How has the conflict affected them? How have they learnt to live with continuing violence? What strategies have they used to cope, to find a space to share or express what they are going through? What impact has the conflict had on their health and on their access to education? What has it meant for families, for power equations within them, for relationships, for children? The contributions in this book explore these issues through interviews with Kashmiri women, personal reflective pieces, extracts from different reports and books. Together they draw attention to a vital aspect of the conflict that has been all but forgotten.