Diana Bahador, who went by ‘Baby Rider’ on Instagram, was just 19. She had a thing for superbikes, sharing wild, adrenaline-fueled videos with her 144,000 followers.
Who was Diana Bahador?
Earlier this month, she was shot and killed by Iranian security forces during the country’s ongoing anti-government protests.
IranWire says Diana was shot twice around midnight on January 9 in Gorgan. She’d been taking part in the protests in the days before. When she didn’t come home, her family searched everywhere and finally got her body two days later, on January 11.
As per reports, Diana Bahador was buried secretly, surrounded by heavy pressure from security and intelligence assets.
Then, something strange happened. Diana’s official Instagram account posted that she’d died in an “accident” and asked people not to spread rumours. But IranWire says her family was forced to deny the security forces’ role in her death.
Things were especially tense in Gorgan. The crackdown was brutal; security forces used machine guns and heavy weapons to break up crowds.
Journalist and activist Masih Alinejad didn’t hold back. She called out the regime on X, saying Diana’s only “crime” was being born under an Islamist dictatorship. According to Alinejad, regime forces killed Diana on January 9.
About Iranian Protests
Since December, protests have gripped Iran. They started because the Iranian rial tanked and inflation soared, but pretty quickly, people began rallying against human rights abuses, harsh restrictions on women, and the lack of basic freedoms under Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Human rights groups estimate that over 6,000 people have been killed in the government crackdown, with many more still missing or feared dead, as reported by The Associated Press.
