A group of mothers in Iran gathered in peaceful protest against anti-government protests resulting in their children’s deaths and were then arrested.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, citing an eyewitness account, said more than 100 police and plainclothes officers broke up a gathering of the Mourning Mothers in Laleh Park Saturday afternoon. The group — formed by women whose children have been killed in recent anti-government protests — gathers every weekend at the park to call attention to the deaths.

“They would not allow anyone to even sit on the benches or congregate,” the organization quoted the unidentified witness as saying. “After about 70 mothers entered the park, security forces engaged them and started chasing them, grabbing them, and forcing them into police vans. They used a lot of violence and insults in the process.”

“No culture permits such violence to be unleashed against mothers,” Ghaemi said in a news release posted on the campaign’s Web site. “How can this government, which claims to have moral and religious authority, treat mothers who have lost their children in such a way? The Iranian officials should know that the activities of Mourning Mothers will not stop until their legitimate grievances are properly addressed.”

The group, Mourning Mothers, was founded in response to the highly publicized and controversial election last year with the mission of having the government take responsibility for the deaths.