Mourning Mothers
Iranian women seeking justice for loved ones lost in protests and human rights abuses / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mourning Mothers (also known as the Mothers of Laleh Park; Persian: مادران پارک لاله) are a group of Iranian women whose spouses or children were killed by government agents in the protests following the disputed Iranian presidential election of 2009.[1] The group also includes relatives of victims of earlier human rights abuses, including mass executions during the 1980s.[2] The principal demand of the Mourning Mothers is government accountability for the deaths, arrests, and disappearances of their children.[3] The mothers meet on Saturdays in Laleh Park in Tehran, and are often chased by the police and arrested.[1]
The Mourning Mothers have called for the revocation of death sentences for political prisoners, the release of prisoners of conscience, and trials of "those who were responsible for and who ordered their children's murders."[4] In 2009, Iranian Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi urged women around the world to show solidarity with the Mourning Mothers by wearing black and meeting in neighborhood parks on Saturdays from 7 to 8 pm.[5]