---
title: "Flag of Iran: colours and meaning"
description: "What every colour and symbol on the Iran flag stands for, its official 4:7 ratio, and the year the current design was adopted. Plus the flags it gets mistaken for."
url: https://atoneplace.net/flag/iran/
site: "At One Place"
---

# The flag of Iran

**The flag of Iran: Three equal horizontal bands of green, white and red, with a red emblem centred on the white and a band of stylised Kufic script repeated along the inner edges of the green and red bands.**

Ratio 4:7 · current design adopted 1980

The takbir is repeated twenty-two times, eleven along the top band and eleven along the bottom, marking the twenty-second day of the eleventh month of the Iranian calendar — the date of the 1979 revolution. That makes it one of very few flags that encodes a date as a repetition count rather than a written number. The central emblem was designed by Hamid Nadimi and is a geometric composition rather than a picture of anything. The lion and sun of the previous flag were removed in 1980.

## What the colours mean

*Flag laws usually specify a Pantone chip, a CMYK mix or just a colour name. Converting any of those to sRGB is lossy, which is why published hex values disagree.*

- **Green** (#239F40) — Growth, happiness and Islam
- **White** (#FFFFFF) — Peace and honesty
- **Red** (#DA0000) — Courage and martyrdom

## The symbols on it

| What | What it stands for |
| --- | --- |
| Central emblem | A stylised composition of four crescents and a sword, readable as the word Allah |
| Repeated script | ALLĀHU AKBAR written eleven times along each of the two inner edges — 22 times in total |

- **Ratio:** 4:7
- **Current design adopted:** 1980
- **Colours:** green, white, red

## Common questions

### What does the flag of Iran look like?

Three equal horizontal bands of green, white and red, with a red emblem centred on the white and a band of stylised Kufic script repeated along the inner edges of the green and red bands.

### What do the colours of the Iran flag mean?

Green: growth, happiness and Islam. White: peace and honesty. Red: courage and martyrdom.

### When was the Iran flag adopted?

The current design dates from 1980, and its official ratio is 4:7.

## Related pages

- [Iran](https://atoneplace.net/country/iran/)
- [Every flag with green in it](https://atoneplace.net/flag/colour/green/)
- [The flag of India](https://atoneplace.net/flag/india/)
- [The flag of Brazil](https://atoneplace.net/flag/brazil/)
- [The flag of Italy](https://atoneplace.net/flag/italy/)
- [The flag of Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/flag/mexico/)
- [The flag of Ireland](https://atoneplace.net/flag/ireland/)
- [The flag of South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/flag/south-africa/)
- [The flag of Jamaica](https://atoneplace.net/flag/jamaica/)
- [The flag of Pakistan](https://atoneplace.net/flag/pakistan/)

## Sources

- The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/) [Public domain (US Government)]