Politicians and perhaps even some TV channels left no stone unturned to incite communal violence in this peace loving city. I give full credit to people here for maintaining utmost calm even after they had been badly hurt by the act of terrorists.

Violence occurs when there is anger. The blasts at the temple did not anger us but made us sad. Which is why there have been no riots.

How can we associate all this with Muslims? All Muslims are not bad and all Hindus are not good.

These women are not politicians, but ordinary Iraqis who are desperate to see an end to the violence and are taking great personal risk to come to the US. It's a rare opportunity to hear from Iraqis themselves, and we hope that US officials will listen.

Violence is unnecessary and costly. Peace is the only way.

The meeting was about starting peace talks and stopping the violence.