Flag of Iraq
Since the 1958 Iraqi coup d'état, the various republican governments of Iraq have used a number of different flags, all featuring the pan-Arab colors of green, black, white, and red. The current official and internationally recognized flag of Iraq was adopted in 2008 as a temporary compromise, and consists of the three equal horizontal red, white, and black stripes of the Arab Liberation Flag, that was first used by Gamal Abdel Nasser during the Egyptian Revolution, with the takbīr written in green in the Kufic script that was originally added by Saddam Hussein following the Gulf War.
This basic tricolour has been in use since its adoption on 31 July 1963, with several changes to the green symbols on the central white stripe; the most recent version adopted on 22 January 2008 bears the takbīr rendered in dark green and removes the three green stars present since 1963. The flag was initially meant to be temporary but has remained the official flag long past originally intended.
Colour scheme
Valid for Iraqi flags 1963–present| Red | White | Green | Black | |
| RGB | 205/17/37 | 255/255/255 | 1/123/61 | 0/0/0 |
| Hexadecimal | #cd1125 | #ffffff | #017b3d | #000000 |
| CMYK | 0/92/82/20 | 0/0/0/0 | 99/0/50/52 | 0/0/0/100 |
History
Iraq as part of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258)
The Abbasid Revolution against the Umayyad Caliphate adopted black for its for which their partisans were called the s. Their rivals chose other colours in reaction; among these, forces loyal to Marwan II adopted red. The choice of black as the colour of the Abbasid Revolution was already motivated by the "black standards out of Khorasan" tradition associated with the Mahdi. The contrast of white vs. black as the Fatimid vs. Abbasid dynastic colour over time developed in white as the colour of Shia Islam and black as the colour of Sunni Islam. After the revolution, Islamic apocalyptic circles admitted that the Abbasid banners would be black but asserted that the Mahdi's standard would be black and larger. Anti-Abbasid circles cursed "the black banners from the East", "first and last".Ottoman Iraq (1534–1920)
Starting in 1534, the territory that is now Iraq was administered by the Ottoman Empire. In 1844, the Ottoman Empire had adopted a national flag as part of the Tanzimat reforms, this flag was used in Iraq until the Arab Revolt, and inspired the flags of the modern Iraqi Turkmen.Kingdom of Iraq (1921–1959)
The first flag of modern Iraq was in Mandatory Iraq, and was adopted in 1921. It was a black-white-green horizontal flag, with a red triangle extending from the mast side, inspired by the flag of the Arab Revolt. It was soon changed to a new version with a red trapezoid replacing the triangle containing two, seven-point white stars denoting the Tigris River and the Euphrates River. Both designs also reflected the newly installed Hashemite dynasty in Iraq, who had played a leading role in the Arab Revolt. As such, it was similar to the flags of Hashemite Jordan, and the short-lived Kingdom of Hejaz. The new flag continued to be used in the Kingdom of Iraq.Iraq as part of the Arab Federation (1958)
In 1958, in response to the merger of Egypt and Syria in the United Arab Republic, the two Hashemite kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan established the Arab Federation, a confederation of the two states. The flag of the union was essentially that of Jordan but without seven pointed star in the red chevron. This flag is identical to the flag of Palestine adopted in 1964, and almost identical to the flag of the Ba'ath Party. The union lasted less than six months, being terminated by the Iraqi Revolution of 1958 in July.Qasimist Iraq (1959–1963)
Following the Revolution of 14 July 1958, led by Abd al-Karim Qasim, which abolished the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq and turned the country into a republic, Iraq adopted a new flag that consisted of a black-white-green vertical tricolour, with a red eight-pointed star with a yellow circle at its centre. The black, white, green, and red are the Pan-Arab colors, representing pan-Arabism, with the yellow Kurdish Sun in the middle to represent the Iraqi Kurds, surrounded by the red Star of Ishtar to represent the indigenous Assyrians.After the fall of the Ba'athist regime in 2003, the 1959 design was considered for readoption. However, it was rejected by Iraqis who associated it with Abd al-Karim Qasim’s radicalism and objected to the vertical layout, which departed from the horizontal tricolour format standard in the Arab world.
The 1959 flag was relegalized and flown in the Kurdistan Region following the 2003 invasion. Some Kurdish leadership preferred it as a national symbol because it was the only flag to acknowledge their identity. It remained in limited unofficial use until 2008, when the Iraqi parliament removed the three stars from the national flag, leading the Kurdistan Regional Government to adopt the revised federal banner.
Ba'athist Iraq (1963–2004)
After the 1963 Ramadan Revolution led to the overthrow of Qasim, the new government adopted a new national flag to represent the Nasserist ideology endorsed by President Abdul Salam Arif, officially replacing the flag adopted by Qasim on July 31 of 1963 with Law 28 of 1963.The Three-star flag is believed to have been originally designed and proposed by Jawad Saleem, a Turkish-born artist with origins in Mosul who also designed and sculpted the Freedom Monument in Baghdad, originally as a tribute to Qasim's revolution. The horizontal red, white, and black tricolour was based on the United Arab Republic flag, and featured three green stars symbolizing a desire to join a reunited Egypt and Syria. Saleem died in 1961 before its official adoption.
In a move symbolising support for a reformed UAR, Ba'athist Syria also adopted this flag as its national flag with slightly different proportions until 1971, when it replaced the stars with the Hawk of Quraish due to its membership in the Federation of Arab Republics.
During his rule, Saddam Hussein made two significant changes to the 1963 flag. First, he reinterpreted the three stars in the Flag Law No. 33 of 1986 to represent the Ba'ath Party's motto Waḥda, Ḥurriyya, Ishtirākiyya. Second, in 1991, amid the Gulf War and as a prelude to the Faith Campaign, he added the takbīr between the stars to gain religious support and emphasize Iraq's Islamic identity, moving away from the Ba'ath Party's traditional secular stance. The hamza over the alif of “Allah” in the main variant seems to be a spelling error according to formal Arabic grammar, but it is a common mistake found in many texts. The form of the was said to be Saddam's own handwriting. Despite this, the original 1963 flag without the takbīr remained legal and remained in co-official use until 2004, most commonly as a civil ensign or in places where a less religiously sensitive flag was needed, this contrasts the flag's use after 2012 as a symbol of Sunni Arab ethnic and religious affiliation. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the three-star flag was used as a symbol of the Iraqi Insurgency with rebel groups even without direct Sunni identity or ideology such as the Sufi-led Naqshbandi Army and Shia Mahdi Army using versions of the flag as a shared symbol.
The 1963 flag reemerged during the 2012–2013 Iraqi protests, adopted by many Sunni Arabs as the distinctive ethnic flag to represent Iraqi Sunni Arabs as a whole and a reference to a time when Iraq was dominated by Sunni leadership and perceived as more favorable and secure for Sunnis. Its meaning shifted from a former national flag to one associated with Sunni Arab identity and political expression. Shias and other minority groups in Iraq today generally do not identify with the flag, viewing it primarily as a symbol of Sunni Arab identity and Ba'athist political legacy rather than a unifying national emblem, despite originally being an inherently non-sectarian symbol with Nasserist origins.
2004–2008
Owing to differing views on [|a flag proposed by the United States-appointed administration], and the prevailing opposition to an outright abandonment of the current Iraqi flag, a compromise measure was adopted by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi interim administration in 2004. The basic form of the existing flag was retained; however, the takbīr was rendered in traditional stylized Kufic script, as opposed to the handwriting of Saddam Hussein.The modified flag was unveiled at the ceremony marking the technical "handover" of power from the Coalition Provisional Authority occupation forces to the U.S.-appointed administration on 28 July 2004.
Although the 2004 version of the Iraqi flag was introduced as a transitional design intended to reduce overt associations with Saddam Hussein's regime, the current Government of Iraq continues to regard all iterations of the three star flag featuring the takbir between the stars as symbols linked to Ba'athist rule. In March 2025, police in Baghdad arrested a resident of the Sumer district after he raised the 2004 flag over his home, reportedly citing it as an expression of allegiance to the former regime.