Flag: Iraq Emoji

The flag of Iraq: three horizontal stripes of red, white, and black (the Arab Liberation colors) with 'Allahu Akbar' ('God is the Greatest') written in green Kufic script across the white stripe. The colors represent overcoming oppression (black) through bloody struggle (red) toward a bright future (white).

This flag carries layers of recent history visible in its design. The 'Allahu Akbar' was added in 1991 by Saddam Hussein in his own handwriting to rally support during the Gulf War. After his fall, the script was changed to traditional Kufic calligraphy in 2004, removing Saddam's personal mark while keeping the religious inscription. Three green stars (representing Ba'athist ideology) were removed entirely in 2008.

Iraq is modern-day Mesopotamia, literally the cradle of civilization. The Sumerians invented writing here. The wheel was invented here. The first cities were built here. Babylon, Ur, Nineveh, and Uruk sit in what is now Iraq. The country's modern history has been defined by war and rebuilding, but its ancient history is where human civilization itself was born.

🇮🇶 appears in Iraqi diaspora posts (estimated 4-5 million Iraqis abroad, with large communities in Germany, Sweden, Jordan, and the US), during Iraqi football matches, and in discussions about Middle Eastern politics. Usage spiked during the 2017 liberation of Mosul from ISIS, during Iraqi parliamentary elections, and during the 2023 Gulf Cup hosted in Basra.

The flag is a unifying symbol in contexts where Iraq's sectarian divisions (Sunni, Shia, Kurdish) fade: football victories, national holidays, and cultural celebrations. The 2007 Asian Cup victory remains the single most emotional moment in Iraqi social media history.

Iraq's flag has been redesigned more times than almost any other country's, reflecting the country's turbulent modern history. The current version was adopted in 2008, but each change tells a political story.

The red-white-black tricolor derives from the Arab Liberation Flag, first used during the 1952 Egyptian revolution. Iraq adopted it in 1963 after the Ba'athist coup, with three green stars representing hoped-for unity between Iraq, Egypt, and Syria (which never materialized).

In January 1991, as US-led forces prepared to attack during the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein added 'Allahu Akbar' between the stars in what was reportedly his own handwriting. The move was calculated: Saddam wanted to reframe the war as a religious struggle rather than a territorial dispute. It worked domestically, if nowhere else.

After Saddam's fall in 2003, the interim government faced a dilemma. The 'Allahu Akbar' had real popular support, but nobody wanted Saddam's handwriting on the national flag. The compromise in 2004: keep the inscription, replace the handwriting with traditional Kufic script, which originates from the Iraqi city of Kufa. In 2008, the three Ba'athist stars were removed entirely.

The flag that Iraq flies today is technically temporary. The 2008 law specified it would be used until a permanent design was agreed upon. That agreement hasn't come, partly because any new design would need to satisfy Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen, Assyrian, and other communities simultaneously. 🇮🇶 was added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015.

• •Iraq's current flag has been officially 'temporary' since 2008. The law specified it would be used until a permanent design was agreed upon. That hasn't happened in 18 years.
• •The 'Allahu Akbar' on the flag was originally Saddam Hussein's own handwriting, added in 1991 during the Gulf War. After his fall, it was replaced with Kufic script in 2004, removing his personal mark while keeping the religious text.
• •Iraq is literally where civilization began. Writing, the wheel, mathematics, agriculture, cities, and codified law all emerged in Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates that is now Iraq.
• •The Mesopotamian Marshes are a UNESCO World Heritage Site where Marsh Arabs still live in reed houses and herd water buffalo, much as Sumerians did 5,000 years ago. Saddam drained 90% of the marshes; they've been partially restored since 2003.
• •Iraq won the 2007 Asian Cup during the peak of sectarian violence. After the semifinal, car bombs killed 50 celebrating fans in Baghdad. The team played the final anyway and won 1-0.
• •The Babylonian base-60 number system is why we have 60 seconds in a minute and 360 degrees in a circle. Every time you check the clock, you're using Iraqi math from 4,000 years ago.

• •Iraq's 2007 Asian Cup victory is regularly cited as one of the most emotional moments in football history. A multi-ethnic squad won during a sectarian civil war, celebrations were bombed, and they still won the final.
• •Baghdad's House of Wisdom (9th-13th century) was the world's greatest center of learning during the Islamic Golden Age. Scholars translated Greek, Persian, and Indian texts into Arabic, preserving knowledge that would later fuel the European Renaissance.
• •The Mesopotamian Marshes became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016. Saddam drained 90% of them in the 1990s to punish Marsh Arabs who had rebelled. Since 2003, restoration brought roughly 250,000 people back. Climate change now threatens the marshes again.
• •UNESCO completed restoration of Mosul's heritage sites in 2025, including the al-Nuri mosque's famous leaning minaret ('al-Hadba,' meaning 'the hunchback'). ISIS had destroyed it in 2017 during the battle for Mosul. Experts on the Tower of Pisa helped rebuild it with its characteristic lean intact.

• •🇮🇶 is a regional indicator sequence: U+1F1EEU+1F1EE (I) + U+1F1F6U+1F1F6 (Q). ISO code: IQIQ.
• •The Arabic text on the flag ('Allahu Akbar') renders differently across platforms. Some show full Kufic calligraphy; others simplify it at small sizes.
• •Shortcode: :flag_iq::flag_iq: or :iraq::iraq: on most platforms.

See the full Emoji Developer Tools guide for regex patterns, encoding helpers, and more.