How Iranians are fighting despotic Islamist regime with personal acts of defiance

See more of our coverage in your search results.

Iranian citizens continue to fight the despotic Islamist regime by turning everyday activities and symbols into acts of defiance.

The government responded to 5 million demonstrators who swarmed the streets of Tehran in January with an iron fist — slaughtering as many as 75,000.

Since then, Iranians have engaged in more covert acts of resistance, developing secret codes to signal to one another that they are part of the resistance.

Stores are secretly selling shirts with the ironic phrase, “Make Iran Great Again,” along with the Lion and Sun flag, which was the national banner before Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Both online and brick and mortar shops have begun selling jewelry with the numbers 18 and 19 hidden in the design — representing the height of the protests on Jan. 8 and 9.

“We also make 1819 our bank PIN codes,” an Iranian protest leader told The Post. “In Iran it’s common for a merchant to ask you what your PIN is when you pay with a credit card, and now everyone says 1819 to tell the world that the fight is still ongoing,”

They have also set their cell phone ringtones to an instrumental song called “Violin” by Ukrainian musician Taras Bazeev, who goes by Toneloom. The song has become the unofficial soundtrack of the January protests and is frequently used in social media videos about them.

“It’s now common that when someone gets a phone call in a public place, they don’t pick it up, they just let their phones ring so everyone hears the song,” the protest leader said.

The symbolic acts of defiance are a release valve for the public still reeling from executions and eager for the United States and Israel to finish the job and overthrow the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“It lifts people’s spirits when they do such things, it’s therapeutic, they intimidate the Islamic Regime in this way,” the protest leader said.

Iranians have also been sharing memes featuring kotlet, a Persian meat patty dish, to mock the slain Ayatollah Khamenei.

“After Trump killed [Iranian General] Qassem Soleimani, we all started sharing images of meat patties because we say he got fried like a meat patty. Now we say Khamenei is a meat patty — or how glad we are that Trump eliminated meat patty,” the protest leader said.

But even these small gestures carry great risk.

“The machinery of repression hasn’t stopped; the killings and executions continued, death sentences issued, they’re still pursuing cases,” he said. Iran just sentenced to death two more January protesters, Matin Shabani and Amir Delshad, Iran International reported.

The regime has also outlawed selling jewelry with the Lion and Sun or other imagery associated with the Shah, according to Iran International.

But because of the US-imposed sanctions and embargo, the Islamic regime is financially squeezed and unable to completely enforce the ban.

“They shut down somebody’s Instagram store that’s selling the resistance merchandise, and another one is made the next day,” the protest leader said.