Iran, January 10: Iranian security forces have reportedly arrested 30 “mournful mothers” protesting in a Tehran park over the death or disappearance of their children.
The women were rounded up on Saturday in Laleh Park, according to opposition website Kaleme.org.
“Around 4pm we were in Laleh park and there were more than 100 police… who were not allowing the mothers to sit on the benches or gather in groups,” an unidentified witness told the website.
“There were around 70 mothers in the park and the security chased them out.
“A number of them escaped but around 30 were arrested and were forcefully taken into police vans.”
The women were believed to have then been driven to a police station.
They are part of a group of mothers whose children have gone either missing or were killed following the contested re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Thousands of protesters were arrested, including dozens of reformists and journalists, in the aftermath of the June election as massive street protests broke out in Tehran.
Some of them have been tried and jailed while Iranian officials say 36 people died during the unrest. Opposition sources put the death toll at 72.
The mothers, who dress in black group in a sign of mourning, usually gather in Laleh park on Saturday afternoons, according to their website, http://mournfulmothers.blogfa.com/.
The group was set up after Neda Agha-Soltan was shot and killed during a protest.
A video showing the young woman bleeding to death was shown on websites around the world, making her a symbol of opposition to Ahmadinejad’s contested re-election.
The mothers demand the prosecution of those who were behind the alleged killing and torture of their loved ones, and also call for the release of all prisoners of conscience.
Kaleme.org is the website of key opposition leader and defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who charges that Ahmadinejad’s re-election was fraudulent.
—Agencies