An Iranian influencer known as ‘Baby Rider’ who posted motorcycle videos without a headscarf has died, sparking claims from a human rights group that she was killed by the regime during a protest.
According to the Hyrcani Human Rights group, 19-year-old Diana Bahador from northern Gonbad-e-Kavus was murdered in the city of Gorgan during protests on January 8.
The group says she was shot twice and her body was returned to her family two days later.
However, Iranian state media has claimed the influencer’s real name was Shahrzad Mokhami and that she died after crashing into a highway guardrail in Golestan on January 22.
A source close to the 19-year-old’s family said authorities would only release her body if the family publicly denied the claims she was killed by the regime and carried out a secret burial, The Telegraph reported.
A statement on Bahador’s Instagram said that her death was the result of an accident, asking followers not to spread rumours.
Rights groups have claimed the family posted this under pressure from intelligence services.
Baby Rider had over 180,000 followers on her Instagram where she would regularly post pictures and videos riding her motorcycle without a headscarf.
An Iranian influencer known as ‘Baby Rider’ who posted motorcycle videos without a headscarf has died
She would regularly post pictures and videos riding her motorcycle without a headscarf
The last post before her death shows the teenager dancing to music while riding through the streets
The last post before her death shows the teenager dancing to music while riding through the streets.
Riding a motorbike as a woman is legally prohibited in Iran, where a decades-old ban makes it impossible to obtain a license.
US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has said that at least 6,221 have died amid Iran’s ongoing protest crackdown, including at least 5,858 protesters, 214 government-affiliated forces, 100 children and 49 civilians who weren’t demonstrating.
The crackdown has seen over 42,300 arrests, it added.
However, Time magazine on Sunday cited two senior Iranian health ministry officials saying at least 30,000 people had been killed, while The Guardian reported a similar figure, adding that a large number of people had disappeared.
Across Iran, corpses in morgues and cemeteries are piling up and overwhelming hospitals and forensic units, which have been forced to turn trucks filled with bodies away.
Iran’s government has put the death toll at a far lower 3,117, saying 2,427 were civilians and security forces, and labeled the rest ‘terrorists’.
Protests in Tehran
Across Iran, corpses in morgues and cemeteries are piling up and overwhelming hospitals and forensic units
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier (L) transits the Strait of Hormuz on November 19, 2019
The protests in Iran began on December 28, sparked by the fall of the Iranian currency, the rial, and quickly spread across the country.
They were met by a violent crackdown by Iran’s theocracy, the scale of which is only starting to become clear as the country has faced more than two weeks of internet blackout.
Iran is now bracing for a possible US attack after Donald Trump announced ‘another beautiful armada’ was heading to the Middle East.
‘By the way, there’s another beautiful armada floating beautifully toward Iran right now. So, we’ll see,’ the president said on Tuesday in a speech at an event in Iowa.
The United States Navy’s Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group entered the Central Command’s zone of responsibility on Monday, after being redirected from operations in the Indo-Pacific, providing America with the ability to respond to the crisis.
The flagship of Carrier Strike Group 3, the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), was escorted by the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Frank E. Petersen, Jr. (DDG-121), USS Spruance (DDG-111) and USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112).
Ambrey, a private security firm, issued a notice Tuesday saying it assessed that the US ‘has positioned sufficient military capability to conduct kinetic operations against Iran while maintaining the ability to defend itself and regional allies from reciprocal action’.
