Afghanistan Flag

Name Proportion Adopted

Afghan 2:3 January 4, 2004

Design

A vertical tricolor of black, red, and green charged in the center with the national emblem.

Afghanistan Flag Meaning:

There are conflicting descriptions of the Afghanistan flag's meaning. In 2002, when this version of the Afghanistan flag was adopted, border affairs ministry official Abdul Wakil Omari said that the flag's colors represented different eras in the country's history. Omari said that black represented the 19th century era when Afghanistan was occupied and not independent; that red represented the fight for independence; and that green represented that independence was achieved. But these three colors originated in 1928 and have been on Afghan flags since then until 1978. So it is thought that the color black may represent previous Afghan flags which represented the sovereign; red was possibly introduced by former king Aman Allah as a sign of progress, copied from the Soviet flag; and that green stands for Islam.

Afghanistan Flag History:

The present day Afghanistan flag was introduced in 2002 by the country's transitional government after the Taliban were defeated. Afghanistan had a similar flag during its monarchist reign from 1930 to 1973, but some of its previous versions were radically different. Afghanistan has undergone many flag changes, among the most in the world, during the 20th Century. In the 16th and 17th centuries Afghanistan was part of the dominions of the Shah of Persia Abbas and there are copies of flags dating back to that era. The Afghanistan nation-state as it is known today came into existence in 1746.