Pouya Bakhtiari

Pouya Bakhtiari (; 1992–2019) was an Iranian protester who was shot and killed on 16 November 2019 in Karaj during the 2019 Iranian protests. His death and his parents' reaction garnered nationwide attention; the arrest of several of Bakhtiari's family, who had defied a request by authorities to keep the mourning ceremony low-key, drew international condemnation, including in a Tweet from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Life Pouya Bakhtiari was born on 10 September 1992 in Tehran, Iran. He received his degree in electrical engineering and operated his family's workshop. Bakhtiari was interested in Iranian history and poetry, and wanted to eventually immigrate to Canada.

Bakhtiari's body was buried on 19 November 2019 in Behesht-e Sakineh Cemetery in Karaj. According to Manouchehr, authorities had requested the family to hold the ceremony in a mosque, but he had refused, citing the need for a larger space.

Bakhtiari's father Manouchehr became an ardent pro-monarchy activist after his son's death. He was detained in July 2020 on Kish Island, to where he had gone to campaign against the Iran–China 25-year Cooperation Program. He was transferred to Bandar Abbas prison, according to Bakhtiari's uncle Mehrdad Bakhtiari.

Bakhtiari's uncle Mehrdad was again detained on 31October 2020, and handed a five-year suspended sentence and prohibited to leave the country for two years upon release on 16December 2020. Days before his detention, Mehrdad had given interviews to foreign-based Persian news outlets in which he spoke of ongoing pressure by authorities to stop the family from demanding a thorough investigation into Bakhtiari's death; he had told Voice of America that authorities had ascribed the death, and that of others in the protests, to anti-government forces from outside Iran.

After the original release of the video by BBC Persian, the entire video was released by Masih Alinejad, which made apparent that the BBC had censored part of the original video. In the censored part of the video, Bakhtiari says "Bravo to everyone! People don't lose this opportunity to once and for all destroy this criminal and corrupt regime which has pillaged our beloved Iran for 40 years."