Flag of Iran

What the flag of Iran looks like

The flag of Iran has three horizontal bands of equal height: green at the top, white in the middle and red at the bottom. The proportions are 4:7. A red emblem is placed in the center of the white band. On the edge between the green and white bands, and between the white and red bands, the phrase Allahu Akbar ("God is great") is written in white Kufic script, 11 times on each edge, so 22 times in total.

The emblem is a stylized form of the word Allah. It is made of four crescents and a central vertical stroke (read as a sword), and the shape can also be seen as a tulip. The design is credited to Hamid Nadimi, and the flag has been in its present form since 29 July 1980, the date usually given for its official adoption.

You can see the same three colors in the Iran flag emoji, though at small sizes the emblem is simplified. High-resolution files are available on the Iran flag download page.

Iran flag meaning and symbolism

The three colors are traditionally explained as green for growth, happiness and Islam, white for peace and red for courage and martyrdom. Other interpretations connect the colors with Persian poetry and with the land of Iran. These are popular readings, not official definitions: the law describes the design of the flag in detail but does not give an exact meaning for each color.

The 22 repetitions of Allahu Akbar refer to the date of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, which was 22 Bahman in the Iranian calendar (11 February). The emblem is understood by the government to represent the word Allah, and also the unity of God, and its four crescents and sword are said to reflect the main principles of Islam. Because of the emblem and the phrase, the flag is used as a symbol of the Islamic Republic.

History of the Iran flag

Persian banners go back thousands of years. Ancient and medieval dynasties used a range of standards: the best-known is the Derafsh Kaviani, a legendary banner linked to the Shahnameh and to the Sasanian empire, and later Safavid and Qajar rulers flew flags with a lion and a sun. Iran used a lion-and-sun emblem for centuries as one of its main symbols, and in the 19th century it appeared on flags in various forms.

The green-white-red tricolor was introduced in 1905 during the Persian Constitutional Revolution, and the Supplementary Fundamental Laws of 1907 described it with a lion and sun emblem in the middle. The lion and sun, with the lion holding a sword in front of a rising sun and sometimes a crown above, stayed in use under the Pahlavi dynasty, and the old state and national flags remained unchanged until July 1980. After the monarchy was overthrown, the new republic replaced the lion and sun with the present emblem. The change was made in stages, and the final design was formally adopted in 1980.

The same lion-and-sun flag, without the crown in most cases, stayed alive among Iranians living outside the country.

Why are there two Iranian flags?

The two flags people refer to are the official flag of the Islamic Republic, with the Allah emblem, and the older flag with the lion and sun. Both use the same green, white and red stripes. The older flag is often called the flag of pre-revolution Iran and is used by many supporters of the former monarchy and by other opponents of the Islamic Republic. Which of the two is "correct" depends on the point of view: only the flag with the Islamic Republic emblem is the legal flag of Iran today.

Because Iran sits at the edge of Central Asia and the Middle East, it is also compared with other flags of Asia. The flags of Tajikistan and Kurdistan share the same colors, and the flag of Afghanistan did in the past.