Flag of Iraq

Flag origins

Iraq’s flag has red-white-black horizontal bands with green Arabic lettering on white: Allāhu Akbar, God Is Great. Parliament adopted the present design on January 22, 2008. These four colors are Pan-Arab colors. The basic tricolour has been used since 1963. The lettering is in Kufic, an ancient style of Arabic calligraphy closely connected historically with Iraq.

Flag story

The flag’s lettering changed with political history. Allāhu Akbar was added during the Gulf War in 1991, in a style based on Saddam Hussein’s own handwriting. After his government fell in 2003, Kufic replaced his script in 2004. In 2008, the three green stars were also removed. Present since 1963, they had later become associated with the Ba’ath Party’s slogan Unity, Freedom, Socialism. The sequence was thus three stars with Saddam’s handwriting, three stars with Kufic, then Kufic without stars.

Editorial notes and references

Edited by ABELHA WORKS. The English text translates the administrator-edited Japanese description. Legends should be distinguished from documented history. General reference links do not substantiate every statement in the text.

• Iraq — general information on Wikipedia
• Japan MOFA: countries and regions (Japanese)

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