There are a lot of things visitors should know before coming to America.
Tip your server.
Don’t stand in the middle of the sidewalk in Manhattan.
And for the love of all things holy, don’t try to tell Americans what flags they’re allowed to wave.
Apparently, nobody shared that last one with FIFA.
This week, Iranian fans attending World Cup events at SoFi Stadium showed up carrying the historic Lion and Sun flag — the symbol that represented Iran long before the Ayatollahs hijacked the country and turned it into a theocratic hostage situation with oil reserves.
And FIFA, in its infinite wisdom, decided this was a problem.
Imagine that.
The regime that funds terror proxies, beats women, imprisons dissidents, hangs protesters, censors journalists, and spends its time threatening neighbors isn’t the problem.
The people carrying a flag opposing that regime are.
Brilliant.
Only an international bureaucracy could arrive at a conclusion that stupid.
Let’s be clear about something.
The Lion and Sun flag isn’t some fringe symbol cooked up on social media six months ago. It represents a Persia and an Iran that existed long before the current regime. It is the banner carried by countless Iranian dissidents precisely because they reject what the Ayatollahs have done to their country.
That’s why the regime hates it.
And that’s why FIFA should have kept its hands off it.
Instead, FIFA looked at a stadium full of people fleeing one of the most hateful regimes on earth and somehow concluded the problem was the people.
That’s not wisdom.
That’s moral stupidity.
The Ayatollahs spend decades silencing opposition, and FIFA decides the opposition is who needs policing.
The Ayatollahs are terrified of dissent, and FIFA practically volunteers to help manage it.
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If that’s not carrying water for tyrants, somebody explain to me what is.
What struck me wasn’t the flag.
It was who was carrying it.
They looked like every family I’ve ever sat next to at a ballgame. Parents. Kids. Grandparents. Friends taking selfies. People buying overpriced stadium food. People trying to enjoy a soccer match.
Not exactly the profile of an international threat.
Unless, of course, you’re FIFA.
I’ve spent enough time around Iranian-Americans over the years to know this isn’t complicated.
Almost universally they love Iran.
They despise the regime.
Those are two entirely different things.
The Ayatollahs have spent more than four decades trying to convince the world that they are Iran. They’re not.
That’s like saying the prison warden is the prison.
No. He’s just the guy holding the keys.
Iran existed long before these clerics showed up, and it will still be there long after they’re gone.
Iran is poets, artists, scholars, entrepreneurs, scientists, mothers, fathers, and families.
The regime is a squatter living in somebody else’s house and acting like they built it.
And the people in those stands know it.
That’s why I loved seeing the flags.
Not because I’m nostalgic for a monarchy. Not because I have some particular attachment to the symbol itself.
But because every one of those flags represented somebody refusing to surrender their identity to a gang of aging extremists in robes.
That matters.
Especially on American soil.
Because if there’s one thing America is supposed to understand, it’s that governments don’t own people.
People own governments.
The Ayatollahs never understood that.
Apparently, FIFA didn’t either.
And let’s talk about SoFi Stadium for a second.
This happened in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles.
A city where people can protest virtually anything.
Presidents. Governors. Corporations. Police departments. Congress. The Supreme Court.
I’ve seen people protest things that weren’t even real.
Yet somehow a historic Iranian flag opposing a terrorist regime became controversial.
That’s not controversial. It’s embarrassing.
If you’re operating a stadium in the United States and you’re uncomfortable with peaceful expression opposing one of the world’s most oppressive governments, maybe you’re in the wrong business.
And let’s stop pretending the clerics in Tehran are some misunderstood political movement.
They’re not.
They’re thugs with theology. Gangsters with prayer beads. Old men hiding behind religion while sending younger men to suffer, fight, and die for fantasies they themselves never have the courage to carry out.
Every day they remain in power is another day stolen from the Iranian people.
The truth revealed at SoFi wasn’t that FIFA dislikes flags. The truth was that thousands of Iranians were willing to publicly tell the world exactly where they stand.
And where they stand is not with the regime.
That’s worth celebrating.
Because courage is contagious.
Every dissident knows it. Every dictator fears it.
The moment people realize they aren’t alone, things start changing.
That’s why authoritarian governments are terrified of crowds.
Not because crowds are violent. Because crowds are honest. And honesty is kryptonite to tyrants.
So here’s my suggestion.
Show up again. Bring the flag. Bring your kids. Bring your grandparents.
And every single time the regime’s anthem plays, remind the world exactly how much support the Ayatollahs actually have among free people.
My heart breaks for the Iranian people because most of them never asked for any of this.
They didn’t choose the mullahs. They didn’t choose the repression. They didn’t choose to become known around the world for the actions of a regime many of them openly despise.
That’s why those flags matter.
They’re not just pieces of fabric. They’re reminders that Iran and the regime are not the same thing.
And every time one of those flags goes up in an American stadium, some young Iranian watching somewhere sees something the Ayatollahs fear more than sanctions, armies, politicians, or speeches.
Hope.
That’s why FIFA never should have touched them.
And that’s why I hope the next crowd brings even more.
Because the Iranian people deserve to be heard.
And the Ayatollahs deserve every boo they get.
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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