Afghanistan Flag

The history of the flag of Afghanistan had experienced many variations. Afghanistan flag history is very long. Whenever a new ruling party came in Afghanistan they changed the Afghanistan flag. So this is the reason behind the long Afghanistan flag history. When ever historians will be writing history on the Afghanistan flag, they will have to write history of the flag of Afghanistan from 1880 until now.

Afghanistan current flag is totally different from the flag of Afghanistan, which was flown in 1880. But later on all the Afghanistan flags were approximately same, apart from some changes. From 1880-1928 the background of the flag of Afghanistan was black, with different symbols. Then later on all the Afghanistan flags contain Black, Red and Green color, with different emblems except in the era of 1978-1980 (full RED), and in 1997-2001 (Full WHITE, with shahadah kalma emblem). While in the 2001 there was not any official flag because of war.

In 2002, in the history of the flag of Afghanistan, a new flag entered. It was same like in the era of 1930-1973, but the emblem in the 2002 flag was full white and printed on the Red strip only. It was first presented and hoisted as a national flag of Afghanistan on 7th December 2004, in the inauguration ceremony of the new president of Afghanistan president karzai. It was first adopted by the coat of arms on 4th July 2004 but approved by President Karzai on 26th January 2004 and hoisted on 7th December 2004.

Afghanistan flag is made in the proportion of 2:3. There are three colors on the flag of Afghanistan. The three colors are printed in vertical strips in equal proportion. Colors on the flag of Afghanistan start from left to right, first black color, then red color, and at last green color. The emblem of the Afghanistan flag is very interesting according to the Islamic point of view. This emblem is used in most of the Afghanistan flags. This emblem is printed only on the red vertical strip, some portions of the mehrab touching the black and green strips in small amount. The emblem on the Afghanistan flag contains a masque, which represents the Mecca masque and there are two mehrabs facing the Mecca masque. At the top of the emblem, where the mehrabs ends and pointed towards each other, there is a kalma of shahada printed in the middle of the mehrab’s end points. On top of the masque dome there is a writing of ALLAH-O-AKBAR. While at the bottom of the Mecca masque, a year is printed of Islamic calendar that is; 1698.

There is conflict in the description of the Afghanistan flag in terms of it meaning. Colors on the Afghanistan flag have different meaning according to different people. Abdul wakil omari said about the new version of the Afghanistan flag colors; this Afghanistan flag depict different eras of the state and according to omari: Black color represents the era when Afghanistan was not independent. Red represent blood shed of freedom fighters. Green represents the country’s independence. But these three Afghanistan flag colors are originated from 1928 until 1978; in actual the meaning of the colors on the Afghanistan flag is different. The Black color represents the monarchy and adopted from the earlier Afghanistan flag. Red color also adopted from earlier flags in monarchy era and represents the progress in the rule of King Aman Allah. While the Green color represents the Islam as on many Islamic country’s flag.

Pictures of the Afghanistan flag can be easily searched on the internet along with all the previous Afghanistan flags.