Mohammad Hossein Fahmideh

Mohammad Hossein Fahmideh (; – ) was an Iranian child soldier and an icon of the Iran–Iraq War. During the First Battle of Khorramshahr in 1980, he served with the Basij and fought invading Iraqi forces in and around the city of Khorramshahr. Fahmideh is credited with having halted the advance of an Iraqi tank column after he jumped underneath an Iraqi tank and detonated a full grenade belt, killing himself in the process. He is celebrated as a war hero in Iran.

Background In September 1980, Iraq launched a full-scale invasion of Iran, sending five armoured and mechanized divisions across the Shatt al-Arab to attack the oil-rich Khuzestan Province in southern Iran, quickly seizing several towns in the area. By 10 November, Iraqi forces had captured the key city of Khorramshahr after a protracted battle with Iranian resistance. Fahmideh was a 13-year-old boy from Qom who, at the outbreak of the war in 1980, left his home without his parents' knowledge to go to southern Iran and aid in the defence of Khorramshahr, then a city at the frontlines of the conflict. In the besieged city of Khorramshahr, he fought side-by-side with older Iranian soldiers. Fahmideh was amongst the Iranians who engaged in fierce house-to-house battles in which thousands of Iraqis and Iranians were killed. wrapped himself in a grenade belt from a nearby corpse, pulled the pins out, and jumped underneath an advancing Iraqi tank, killing himself and disabling the tank. During the 1938 Battle of Taierzhuang, Chinese suicide troops again charged at tanks with explosives strapped to their bodies.

In Iran, Fahmideh's story inspired many Iranians during the war to risk death to protect the country, and has been heralded by leaders in Iran from Ruhollah Khomeini to Mohammad Khatami. Khomeini declared Fahmideh to be an Iranian national hero, and made references to him in several of his speeches: A monument to him was erected on the outskirts of Tehran and has become a place of pilgrimage for young religious Iranians. In the years following Fahmideh's death, murals have been erected throughout Iran, book bags displaying him were sold to children, and, in 1986, a postage stamp was issued in his memory. Streets, hospitals, schools, and a sports stadium have been named in his honour.

Award Fahmideh was posthumously awarded the first-grade Order of Fath on 27 September 1989 after the Iran–Iraq War, becoming its first recipient.