Parveena Ahanger is the founder and Chairperson of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) in Jammu and Kashmir.

She is known as the Iron Lady of Kashmir. At the uprising against Indian rules in Kashmir, her teenage son disappears in 1990. He is one of thousands who had been disappeared in past. In a conversation, she says that the grief of losing her son inspired her to struggle for justice and accountability.

The aim of APDP is to provide support and mobilize family members of missing persons, and to put pressure on Indian government to investigate the estimated 9-10,000 cases of disappearance.

She has won the Rafto Prize for Human Rights in 2017 for her protests against enforced vanishings. She demands justice for victims of violence in Jammu and Kashmir.

In 2005 Parveena was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2019 she was named as one of the BBC 100 Women list, as influential and inspiring women around the world.