They marched with their children in tow, an unusual sight in the tightly controlled country.  Amateur video that captured the scene (see below) shows them chanting "peaceful, peaceful" in Arabic and carrying tree branches.

"The women of Baida are on the highway. They want their men back," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The day before, hundreds of men had been forced to chant "we sacrifice our blood and our soul for you, Bashar," according to a lawyer who spoke about the incident with Reuters, and were forcibly videotapped while doing so.

Syria has seen some mass protests in the wake of the popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere, but on a more muted scale.

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