Fath Medal | |
Presenter: | Commander-in-chief Supreme Leader of Iran |
Type: | Decoration |
Status: | Currently awarded |
Firstawarded: | September 27, 1989[1] |
Same: | 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 Commander-in-chief, Supreme Leader of Iran. The medal is the likeness of three Palm leaves over Khorramshahr's grand mosque (as a symbol of resistance), Flag of Iran and the word "Fath".
The medal is awarded in three grades, typically based on the rank of the recipient.[2]
According to Owain Raw-Rees,[3] the medal is 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. However, these guidelines are not applied strictly.
The first recipient of the Order of Fath, First Class, was Mohammad Hossein Fahmideh, one of three to receive the honour on September 27, 1989.[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] [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"[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." Khomeini's regime 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," and to include Fahmideh's story alongside that of other martyrs in textbooks intended to improve childhood literacy.[11]
The first Order of Fath medals were conferred on September 27, 1989, after the Iran–Iraq War, with three recipients of the award at First Class level:
Alongside them, 21 people received 2nd class medal and 29 people received the 3rd class medal.
On February 4, 1990, a total of 210 men received the medal. Some of the recipients in the ceremony included:
2014
Mohammad Pakpour, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Ground Forces, 1st grade.
Ali Fadavi, commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, 1st grade.
Habibollah Sayyari, former commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, 1st grade.
2024
Abdolrahim Mousavi, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, 1st grade.
Hossein Salami, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, 1st grade.