Flag of Afghanistan

An overview

The flag of Afghanistan is a white field bearing the Shahada — the Islamic declaration of faith — in black calligraphy. It has flown since August 15, 2021, when the Islamic Emirate took power, and the same design served as the national flag from 1997 to 2001.

It replaced the black, red, and green tricolor of the Islamic Republic, the flag defined by the 2004 constitution. That tricolor has not disappeared: it remains in use at many Afghan diplomatic missions abroad and among Afghans worldwide, so two flags represent the country in practice today.

Few national flags have changed hands so often. Since the first standard flag was raised in 1880, nearly every change of government has brought a new banner — a history traced flag by flag in the timeline below.

Design and specification

The current flag is a plain white rectangle with the Shahada centered in black, written in the Thuluth style of Arabic calligraphy. It is commonly made at a hoist-to-fly ratio of 1 : 2, though proportions vary in practice; the Islamic Emirate has published no construction sheet or color standard. A state variant adds “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” in Pashto below the inscription.

The tricolor it replaced was precisely defined. Article 19 of the 2004 constitution set three equal vertical bands — black at the hoist, then red, then green — at a 2 : 3 ratio, with the national emblem in white at the center of the red band.

Color specification

The current flag uses two colors: white for the field and black for the inscription. No official shade has been specified, so the values below are the standard white and black used to reproduce the flag. The 2004 constitution named the tricolor’s colors — black, red, and green — but likewise prescribed no exact shades.

Symbolism and meaning

The current flag carries one message. The Shahada reads, “There is no deity but God; Muhammad is the messenger of God” — the declaration of faith at the foundation of Islam. The white field, in the Islamic Emirate’s account, stands for the purity of its faith and government.

The tricolor still seen abroad carries the meanings King Amanullah gave it in 1928: black for the dark ages of the past, red for the blood shed in the independence struggle, and green for the hope and wealth of the future. Its white emblem — a mosque with a mihrab and minbar, ringed by wheat — has roots in a seal first placed on the flag in 1901.

The tricolor meanings date to King Amanullah’s 1928 design; the white flag’s meaning is as stated by the Islamic Emirate. Neither is fixed in a published law.

How the flag evolved

Afghanistan’s flags have tracked its politics. A black emirate banner gave way to a European-style tricolor in 1928; republics, communist governments, and Islamic governments each redrew it; and the white Shahada flag has now flown twice. The timeline below traces every major design since 1880.

1. 1880

   Plain black

   

   Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, who unified the country after the Second Anglo-Afghan War, flew a solid black flag — the color of his dynasty. It was Afghanistan’s first standard national flag.

2. 1901

   A white seal on black

   

   Habibullah Khan added a white emblem — a mosque with a mihrab (prayer niche) and minbar (pulpit). That motif has appeared on most Afghan flags since.

3. 1919

   Independence rays

   

   After Afghanistan won full independence from British control in 1919, Amanullah Khan set the seal inside an eight-pointed burst of rays.

4. 1928

   The first tricolor

   

   Back from a tour of Europe, King Amanullah introduced black, red, and green — black for the dark ages of the past, red for the blood shed in the independence struggle, and green for the hope and wealth of the future. His reforms provoked a revolt, and the tricolor briefly fell with him.

5. 1930

   The tricolor returns

   

   Mohammed Nadir Shah restored the vertical tricolor, with the mosque emblem set in a wreath of wheat at the center. With small changes it flew for more than four decades — Afghanistan’s longest-serving flag.

6. 1974

   The republic’s eagle

   

   After the 1973 coup ended the monarchy, the republic turned the three stripes horizontal and adopted a new state emblem built around an eagle.

7. 1978

   Communist red

   

   The Saur Revolution brought a Soviet-style flag: an all-red field with a yellow state seal in the canton.

8. 1980

   Three colors, socialist emblem

   

   Under the Soviet-backed government, black, red, and green returned in horizontal bands beneath a socialist state emblem in the canton.

9. 1987

   A softer emblem

   

   As the government stepped back from communist symbolism, the state emblem was redrawn with Islamic elements restored.

10. 1992

    The Islamic State

    

    With the communist government gone, the mujahideen-era Islamic State adopted horizontal green, white, and black bands in December 1992, with the state emblem at the center.

11. 1996

    Plain white

    

    The Taliban, after taking Kabul in 1996, flew a plain white banner.

12. 1997

    The Shahada added

    

    On October 27, 1997, the Shahada was added in black calligraphy — the design that returned in 2021. It flew until the government fell in late 2001.

13. 2002

    Tricolor restored

    

    After the Taliban government fell, the interim administration formally readopted the black-red-green tricolor with a modified emblem on January 29, 2002.

14. 2004

    The Islamic Republic flag

    

    Article 19 of the new constitution fixed the flag: three equal vertical bands of black, red, and green, with the national emblem in white at the center — a mosque flanked by two flags, sheaves of wheat, the Shahada and the takbir, and the year 1298 in the solar Hijri calendar (1919), when Afghanistan won independence. The emblem’s drawing was standardized in 2013.

15. 2021

    The white flag returns

    

    When the Islamic Emirate took power on August 15, 2021, the white Shahada flag replaced the tricolor. The tricolor remains in use at many Afghan missions abroad.

Status and use

The white Shahada flag is the flag of Afghanistan’s de facto authorities: it flies on government buildings and at official events inside the country. The Islamic Emirate has not published a constitution, flag law, or display code defining it, and most governments have not formally recognized the Emirate.

The tricolor’s legal basis is Article 19 of the 2004 constitution, which the de facto authorities no longer apply. Because the Islamic Republic was the country’s last broadly recognized government, many Afghan embassies and consulates abroad continue to fly the tricolor, and Afghans worldwide use it as a national symbol. Which flag appears at an international event depends on who represents Afghanistan there.