The Tsunami of arrests, a non-stop wave

A group of Iranian women who call themselves the Mourning Mothers and who comprise of mothers who have lost their children in the post-presidential unrests, gather every Saturday at Park Laleh in central Tehran to commomerate their loved ones in silence. They have been harrased and intimindated by the security men and armed militias from the beginning. A number of them were detained on previous occasions and some are still in detention.

Yesterday, 9 January as they entered the park, armed militias who were waiting inside rounded up every one and took away 30 of these mourning women who have done nothing but mourning the loss of their children in silence. Among the detainees are women as old as 70. The whereabouts of the detainees is unknown. This action along with the detention of tens of human rights and women's rights activists and journalists is yet another attempt to silence the Iranian people who are fighting for theior basic human rights.

We urge the international communities to raise their voices against the repressive and excessive measures of the Iranian government against the Iranian people.