Flag of Iraq

Meaning and history of the flag of Iraq

Iraq's flag has three equal horizontal stripes: red on top, white in the middle, and black at the bottom. The white stripe bears the inscription 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great) in green Kufic calligraphy. Red, white, black, and green are the pan-Arab colors, representing the unity of the Arab world and drawing on the banners of historic Islamic dynasties.

The current flag was adopted on January 22, 2008, when the 'Allahu Akbar' inscription was changed from Saddam Hussein's handwriting to standard Kufic script. The original 1963 flag had included three green stars representing a planned union between Iraq, Egypt, and Syria that never materialized. The stars were removed in the 2008 redesign to distance the national symbol from the Baathist regime.

Iraq's flag shares the pan-Arab colors with the flags of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Sudan, reflecting the shared heritage of twentieth-century Arab nationalism. The phrase 'Allahu Akbar' was added by Saddam Hussein in January 1991, during the Gulf War, in an attempt to lend the conflict a religious character. It is one of the flags that has undergone the most changes in recent decades, mirroring the country's turbulent political history.

You can view the flag of Iraq in high resolution above and download it in several sizes for personal, educational or reference use. To explore more, visit the full Iraq profile, its map, or the current local time in Baghdad.