Order of Fath

Fath Medal
All grades of Order of Fath
Type	Decoration
Country	Iran
Presented by	Commander-in-chief Supreme Leader of Iran
Status	Currently awarded
First award	27 September 1989
Ribbon of the medal
Precedence
Equivalent	Fath grade 1 Fath grade 2 Fath grade 3

The Fath Medal (Persian: نشان فتح, lit. 'Conquer Medal') is a military award of the Iranian armed forces which is awarded by the commander-in-chief, the Supreme Leader of Iran.

First awarded on 27 September 1989,^[1] the medal shows three Palm leaves over Khorramshahr's grand mosque (as a symbol of resistance), the flag of Iran, and the word "Fath".^[1][2] It is a military award of the Iranian armed forces and is awarded by the commander-in-chief, the Supreme Leader of Iran.^[1]

As of 2008^[update], the medal was awarded in three grades. Senior commanders are typically awarded a first class medal, colonels and brigadiers usually receive a second class award, while third class awards are granted to those ranked at or below lieutenant colonel.^[3]

The first Order of Fath medals were conferred on 27 September 1989, after the Iran–Iraq War, with three recipients of the award at First Class level.^[4]

• The first recipient of the Order of Fath was Mohammad Hossein Fahmideh.^[4] Fahmideh's award was posthumous, as he was killed in November 1980 when, as a 13-year-old boy, he was fighting in the Iran–Iraq War. He disabled an Iraqi tank by jumping under it while wearing a belt of grenades from which he had removed the pins.^[5][6] In so doing, Fahmideh halted the advance of a line of tanks.^{[7]: 57 [6][8][9]} Khomeini declared Fahmideh a national hero, stating that the "value of [Fahmideh's] little heart is greater than could be described by hundreds of tongues and hundreds of pens"^[6][10] and also calling him "our guide" who "threw himself under the enemy's tank with a grenade and destroyed it, thus drinking the elixir of matyrdom."^[6] Khomeini's government went on to provide a knapsack to every school child in Iran that showed "Fahmideh's heroic sacrifice under the tank and the grenades he used to blow himself up,"^[8] and to include Fahmideh's story alongside that of other "martyrs" in textbooks intended to improve childhood literacy.^[11]
• Mohsen Rezaee, commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps^[4]
• Ali Sayad Shirazi, commander of Islamic Republic of Iran Army^[4]

Alongside them, 21 people received 2nd class medal and 29 people received the 3rd class medal.^[1][4]

On 4 February 1990, a total of 210 men received the medal. The recipients included:

• Abbas Babaei (KIA, 2nd grade)^[1]
• Jalil Zandi (2nd grade)^[1]
• Mansour Sattari (2nd grade)^[1]
• Mohammad Daneshpour (2nd Grade)^[1]
• Massoud Monfared Niyaki (KIA, 2nd grade)^[1]
• Mostafa Ardestani (KIA, 2nd grade)^[1]

• Mohammad Ebrahim Hemmat (KIA, 2nd grade)^[1]
• Mehdi Bakeri (KIA, 2nd grade)^[1]
• Hossein Kharrazi (KIA, 2nd grade)^[1]
• Yahya Rahim Safavi (2nd grade)^[1]
• Mohammad Ali Jafari (3rd grade)^[1]
• Qasem Soleimani (3rd grade)^[1]
• Ahmad Kazemi (3rd grade)^[1]

• Ali Shamkhani (2nd grade)^[1]

• Mohammad Pakpour, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Ground Forces^{[citation needed]}

• Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, 1st grade^[4]

• Habibollah Sayyari, former commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy^{[citation needed]}

• Kioumars Heydari, commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Ground Forces^{[citation needed]}

• Abdolrahim Mousavi, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army^[2]
• Hossein Salami, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps^[2]
• Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Forces^{[citation needed]}

• Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1st grade)^[12]
• Hassan Rouhani (2nd grade)^[12][13]

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