Tara Fares was a model and a social media star whose carefully crafted lifestyle and fashion photos drew in more than 2.7 million followers on Instagram.

On Thursday, she was shot dead at 22 in broad daylight in Baghdad, the latest woman killed in a series of attacks that government officials are investigating as possibly linked.

Ms. Fares, a former beauty queen who had just been voted one of Iraq’s most followed social media stars, was shot three times while at the wheel of her white convertible in the upscale Camp Sarah neighborhood in the center of the Iraqi capital.

“She was very beautiful and nice and wanted to be happy and to live her life how the rest of the world lives: without restraint and hatred,” said Omar Moner, a Baghdad-based photographer and friend. “But here in Iraq, there is no acceptance of the freedoms of others.”