Putting your body in harm’s way to protect what you support has a long and powerful history. In India, women have formed defiant human shields in various eras to protect the vulnerable from both brutal rulers and murderous mobs. In the 1970s, locals in the Garhwal Himalayas formed rings around trees to prevent large-scale logging in what came to be known as the Chipko movement. Today such a movement is growing in Iran, whose power plants and bridges the US has threatened to destroy. First, tar virtuoso Ali Ghamsari stunned the world by calmly sitting down to play next to the Damavand power plant. Then thousands of Iranians responded to the government’s call to follow suit. Leaders must implore the war machine to stop before knowingly harming civilians.