Iranians fight the regime with secret codes, MIGA shirts and kotlet memes

Iranians are turning everyday life into quiet resistance against the Islamic Republic, the New York Post reports, months after the January street uprising that authorities crushed.

Stores are selling shirts with the ironic slogan "Make Iran Great Again" and the pre-1979 Lion and Sun flag. Jewelry and bank PIN codes hide the numbers 18 and 19 — a nod to the height of the January 8–9 protests. Phone ringtones play the instrumental "Violin," the unofficial soundtrack of the uprising, left ringing in public so strangers hear it. Memes cast slain regime figures as kotlet, a Persian meat patty.

A protest leader told the Post the gestures lift spirits while people wait for the United States and Israel to finish the job against the IRGC — even as Tehran keeps issuing death sentences and bans Shah-era symbols. Sanctions, he said, leave the regime too squeezed to shut every underground shop.