Since 2004, the violent conflict between Thai Buddhists and Malay Muslims has caused more than 7,500 lives in the southern border provinces of Thailand. This is the first collection published in English to give voice to those who have rebounded from these profound personal tragedies to demand justice and peace. The narratives collected here, primarily from women, testify that although the violence has been generated from both sides of the Buddhist/Muslim divide, the actions undertaken by armed forces of the Thai Buddhist state-including repressive violence and torture-have served as a catalyst for increased Muslim insurgency. These contributions reveal the fundamental problem of how a minority people can fully belong within a state that has insisted on religious, cultural, and linguistic homogenization.

John Clifford Holt is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of the Humanities in Religion and Asian Studies at Bowdoin College.

Soraya Jamjuree teaches at Prince of Songkla University in Pattani and is a founder of the Civic Women's Network for Peace in the Southern Border Provinces of Thailand.

Hara Shintaro is a researcher and translator of Malay.