Flag of Iran
Flag ratio: Unknown
The current flag of
Iran was adopted on
July 29,
1980, and is a reflection of the changes brought to Iran by the
Islamic Revolution. The basic design of the flag is three horizontal bands of green above white above red, sybolising, respectively, Islam, peace, and courage. This basic design has been used since the beginning of the century and existed on the flags of the Shahs of Iran. However, during the time of the Shahs, the center of the flag had an image of a lion with a sword, which is a classical symbol of
Persia. Since the Islamic Revolution, the lion has been replaced by a symbol which has many meanings, but that is essentially a stylized form of the word
Allah. The symbol also represents four crescents with a sword in the middle. A further change to the flag following the Islamic Revolution has been the addition of writing on the borders between the white, and the green and red bands reading, in Arabic,
Allahu Akbar or
God is the Greatest. There are 22 copies of this inscription, symbolic of the date of the revolution, the 22nd day of the 11th month in the Iranian calendar.