Order of Fath

First awarded on 27 September 1989,{{cite news|first = Mahdi|last = Poursafa|url = http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13921029000489|work = Fars News|script-title = fa:گزارش فارس از تاریخچه نشان‌های نظامی ایران، از «اقدس» تا «فتح»؛ مدال‌هایی که بر سینه سرداران ایرانی نشسته است|trans-title = From "Aghdas" to "Fath": Medals resting on the chest of Iranian Commanders|date = January 20, 2014|access-date = January 4, 2020|language = fa}} the medal shows three Palm leaves over Khorramshahr's grand mosque (as a symbol of resistance), the flag of Iran, and the word "Fath".{{cite web | title=Leader awards Fath Medal to Army and IRGC chiefs | website=Tehran Times | date=11 March 2024 | url=https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/496071/Leader-awards-Fath-Medal-to-Army-and-IRGC-chiefs | access-date=13 June 2025}} It is a military award of the Iranian armed forces and is awarded by the commander-in-chief, the Supreme Leader of Iran.

{{as of|2008}}, 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.{{cite journal|first = Owain|last = Raw-Rees|title = Awards of the Islamic Republic of Iran|year = 2008|volume = 59|issue = 3|pages = 14–16|journal = Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America|url = http://www.omsa.org/files/jomsa_arch/Splits/2008/34256_JOMSA_Vol59_3_16.pdf}}

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.

• The first recipient of the Order of Fath was Mohammad Hossein Fahmideh.{{cite news|title = Leader Confers Medal on IRGC Commanders for Capturing US Marines|date = January 31, 2016|work = Fars News Agency|access-date = January 4, 2020|url = https://en.farsnews.com/13941111001147|quote = The first ever medals awarded to the Iranian militaries happened after the Iran-Iraq War on September 27, 1989. The first grade medals went to: Martyr Hossein Fahmideh, 13-year-old volunteer soldier of Basij, Mohsen Rezayee, the former IRGC commander, and Martyr Ali Sayyad Shirazi, the former army chief. In addition, 21 people received 2nd and 29 people received 3rd degree medals.}} 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.{{cite news|title = Commander Stresses IRGC Readiness to Combat Enemy Troops in PG|date = October 29, 2007|work = Fars News Agency|url = http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8608070681|url-status = dead|archive-date = October 31, 2007|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071031223126/http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8608070681}}{{cite book|last = Mitchell|first = Jolyon P.|title = Promoting Peace, Inciting Violence: The Role of Religion and Media|year = 2012|publisher = Routledge|location = Abingdon, Oxon|isbn = 9780415557467|chapter = Celebrating Matyrdom – Prologue|pages = 47–53|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jLGcNb1_H1YC&dq=Fahmideh&pg=PA47}} In so doing, Fahmideh halted the advance of a line of tanks.{{cite book|title = Martyrdom: A Very Short Introduction|first = Jolyon|last = Mitchell|year = 2012|chapter = Contesting Martyrdom|pages = 42–64|publisher = Oxford University Press|location = Oxford, UK|isbn = 9780199585236|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KNTPMAcyriMC&pg=PA57}}{{rp|57}}{{cite news|url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article626388.ece|url-status = dead|title = The Making of a Suicide Bomber|first = Robert|last = Baer|author-link = Robert Baer|newspaper = The Sunday Times|date = September 3, 2006|archive-date = May 23, 2011|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110523053003/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article626388.ece}}{{cite web|title = Subject Bibliography: Suicide Bombers|url = https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=702939|date = May 2007|access-date = January 4, 2020|first = Robert J.|last = Bunker|author-link = Robert J. Bunker|publisher = FBI Academy Library, U.S. Department of Justice|location = Quantico, Virginia|url-status = live|website = Homeland Security Digital Library|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170510105717/https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=702939|archive-date = May 10, 2017}} 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"{{cite web|title = Put a stop to it – A Memoir in Books|first = Assal|last = Badrkhani|date = October 8, 2003|url = https://iranian.com/2003/10/08/put-a-stop-to-it/|access-date = January 4, 2020|work = The Iranian}} 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 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," and to include Fahmideh's story alongside that of other "martyrs" in textbooks intended to improve childhood literacy.{{cite book|last = Davis|first = Joyce|title = Martyrs: Innocence, Vengeance, and Despair in the Middle East|year = 2004|chapter = The Child as Soldier-Matyr: Iran's Mohammad Hosein Fahmideh|publisher = Palgrave Macmillan|isbn = 9781403966810|pages = 45–66|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9KzgBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45}}
• Mohsen Rezaee, commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
• Ali Sayad Shirazi, commander of Islamic Republic of Iran Army

Alongside them, 21 people received 2nd class medal and 29 people received the 3rd class medal.

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

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

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

• Ali Shamkhani (2nd grade)

• Mohammad Pakpour, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Ground Forces{{cn|date=June 2025}}

• Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, 1st grade

• Habibollah Sayyari, former commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy{{cn|date=June 2025}}

• Kioumars Heydari, commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Ground Forces{{cn|date=June 2025}}

• Abdolrahim Mousavi, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army
• Hossein Salami, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
• Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Forces{{cn|date=June 2025}}

• Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1st grade){{cite news |url=http://www.farsnews.ir/newstext.php?nn=13921029000489 |last=Poursafa |first=Mahdi |script-title=fa:گزارش فارس از تاریخچه نشان‌های نظامی ایران، از «اقدس» تا «فتح»؛ مدال‌هایی که بر سینه سرداران ایرانی نشسته است |trans-title=From "Aghdas" to "Fath": Medals resting on the chest of Iranian Serdars |date=20 January 2014 |agency=Fars News|access-date=21 October 2014 |language=fa}}
• Hassan Rouhani (2nd grade){{cite web|url=http://www.leader.ir/langs/fa/?p=contentShow&id=255|title=پایگاه اطلاع‌رسانی دفتر مقام معظم رهبری|work=leader.ir|access-date=20 March 2024|archive-date=7 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130707075122/http://www.leader.ir/langs/fa/?p=contentShow&id=255|url-status=live}}

{{reflist}}

{{commons cat|Order of Fath}}

{{Orders, decorations, and medals of Iran}}

{{Highest gallantry awards}}

Category:Military awards and decorations of Iran

Category:Awards established in 1989

Category:Islamic awards