Iran
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Iran
Iran: Index of All Pages
Description of the Flag
Horizontally divided green-white-red with a red emblem in the center and  stylized writings on  the horizontal edges of the white stripe.  The hoist of the Iranian flag  should be at the viewer's right, as it is the case for Saudi Arabia and Iraq , two other flags  featuring writing which reads from right to left.
Approximate specifications (as given in Album des  Pavillons 2000 :
Red: Pantone 186 c / CMYK (%) C 0 - M90 - Y 80 - K 5
Green: Pantone 355 c / CMYK (%) C 100 - M 0 - Y 95 - K 5
Use: on  land, civil, state and war flag, at sea, civil, State and war  ensign.
I visited the Islamic Republic of Iran embassy in Mexico City and I asked about the Iranian flag and emblem.   I got the ratio as 3:5 and the approximate colors (PMS) as Pantone hexacrome green C,  white, and Pantone Warm Red C.
Manuel Gabino Villascán, 3 February 2003
Is this ratio based on numbers you read in a text of law or did you measure it yourself on a "piece of cloth?"
Armand Noel du Payrat, 4 February 2003
The ratio is based on measurements taken from a desk flag, a "hall"  flag, and from the brochures provided by the embassy.
Manuel Gabino Villascán, 4 February 2003
The Iranian flag displayed vertically is seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Iranian_national_flag_(tehran).jpg .
Esteban Rivera, 9 October 2010
The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics ( Flags  and Anthems Manual London 2012 ) provides recommendations for national flag  designs. Each NOC was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for  their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm  version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the  official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC  believed the flag to be. For Iran: PMS 186 red, 355 green. The vertical flag is  simply the horizontal version turned 90 degrees clockwise.
Ian Sumner,  10 October 2012
Color Symbolism
The colours of the Iranian flag are traditional, probably dating from at  least the 18th century, and they can be interpreted as representing the Islamic  religion (green), peace (white), and courage (red). They were first designed in tricolor form in  1907. The flag's centerpiece formerly comprised a lion with a sword standing before a rising sun, with a crown above, but all traditional flags and  banners were abolished after the abdication of the shah in 1979.
Source: Shaw, 1994
Carlos de Noronha, 28 March 1998
Another interpretation of the significance of the colours is red, the colour  of the blood lost by the people who died for their country; white for peace and  friendship with any other country; green for the greenness of the country and  lots of fruits and vegetables growing in this county.
Minu Bahrami, 7  July 2010
Central Emblem
The symbol consists of four crescents and a sword. The four crescents are  meant to stand for the word Allah (there is indeed some resemblance to the  Arabic writing of it). The five parts of the emblem symbolize the five  pillars of Islam. Above the sword (central part) is a tashdid (looks a bit  like a W). In Arabic writing this is used to double a letter, here it doubles  the strength of the sword.
Harald Mueller, 14 May 1996
Looking at the explanation of reading of the symbol, it seems  that the entire symbol together reads simply Allah.
Željko Heimer, 8 February 2003
The shape of the emblem is chosen to recall a tulip, in memory of the  (young) people who died for Iran. It is an ancient belief in Iran, dating back  to mythology, that if a young soldier dies patriotically, a red tulip will grow  on his grave. In recent years it is considered as the symbol of martyrdom.
M. N., 7 June 1999
Allahu Akbar
There are Arabic writings in the border line of the stripes.  These are 22  copies of the main Islamic phrase Allahu Akbar meaning "God is greater  (than everything)". They are written in a beautiful ancient manner dating back  to the first centuries of Islam. You can find the same way of writing (which is  called Kufic from the city of Kufa, now in Iraq) on old  mosques throughout Iran.
According to the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the number 22 was  chosen because the Islamic Revolution (known as the 1979 revolution in western  chronology) overthrew the previous regime on the 22nd of the 11th month of the  Iranian Calendar.  The Iranian Calendar is based on Zodiac signs. The year begins  on March 21st and the 11th month coincides exactly with Aquarius.  So we have  11 green repetitions on the top and 11 red repetitions on the bottom of the white  strip.
M.N., 7 June 1999
It depends on what is meant by "Arabic writing."  If it means "Arabic script," then the current quote is correct, as the usual name for that particular script used for the usual Arabic, Persian (and many other) orthographies is indeed "Arabic script." (Just like the Latin script, used to write Latin and many other languages too.)  On the other hand,  the specific character repertoire and other orthographic features are not 100% the same for Arabic and Persian, and therefore we can tell apart subsets of the Arabic script and call them the "Arabic alphabet" and the "Persian alphabet". Note that this distinction between "alphabet" and "script" is not clear cut and indeed these words are interchangeable or synonyms in some contexts.  Finally, while certainly Persian (Farsi) is the national language of Iran and and native to most of its population (minorities include Arabic speakers in Khuzestan), I'd bet, without looking it up, that the 22 times repeated writing on the national flag of Iran is indeed in Arabic language, being a religious utterance.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 27 September 2003
The Kufic script used on the Iranian flag is one of two main branches of Arab  scripts. It is mainly used for monumental inscriptions on buildings,  tombstones, etc.  Some experts distinguish the Kufic script as an independent script. Both are developed from the Nabatean script in the 4th-7th centuries.  As to the Iranian Iranian flag, the phrase is in Arabic, and we cannot  tell if it is the Persian script or a Persian variation of Kufic script, or just Kufic.
Gvido Petersons, 29 September 2003
António is correct that the inscriptions are Arabic, as I just confirmed with an Iranian-born  colleague of mine.  Farsi pronunciation of the words would vary  slightly from standard Arabic, but he said there is no doubt that the inscriptions on  the flag are in Arabic.
Joseph McMillan, 29 September 2003
No half-masting of Iranian flag
A government directive, issued on July 18, 2007, banned executive organs from  flying Iran's national flag half-mast as a gesture of respect and sympathy on  mourning occasions. Vice-President Parviz Davoodi said in his directive that  flying the flag for two-third of the way up the flagpole would be disrespect for  the holy word, 'Allah' (God), which appears in central part of the three-colored  national flag. The notice, a copy of which was made available to IRNA on  Saturday, suggested the organs raise more than one flag -- the second one being  black at half-mast point- for the purpose on the occasions.