Flag: Tunisia Emoji

The flag of Tunisia: a solid red field with a white disc at the center, inside which sits a red crescent embracing a red five-pointed star. One of the oldest continuously used national flags in the world, adopted in 1831 under Bey Al-Husayn II of the Husainid dynasty, three years after the Battle of Navarino destroyed the Ottoman fleet and made the regency look hard at its own naval identity. The crescent and star are Islamic symbolism inherited from the Ottoman tradition; the white disc was added to distinguish Tunisian ships from Ottoman ones in Mediterranean ports.

🇹🇳 sits in a different cultural slot from the rest of the Maghreb. Tunisia exports a quieter, more Mediterranean version of itself on social media: Carthage ruins, Sidi Bou Said's blue-and-white doors, Djerba beaches, Star Wars filming locations, couscous, and harissa. The flag spikes around three predictable moments: the January 14 anniversary of the 2011 Jasmine Revolution that started the Arab Spring, the March 20 Independence Day, and Carthage Eagles football. Outside those, it's a steady-state travel and food flag rather than a politics flag.

Tunisia has the smallest population of any Maghreb country (around 12.4 million) but punches above its weight in cultural exports, partly because of a 600,000 to 750,000-strong diaspora in France (40% in Paris) and large communities in Italy. The emoji is a regional indicator sequence: U+1F1F9 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER TU+1F1F9 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER T + U+1F1F3 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER NU+1F1F3 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER N. TN comes from Tūnis, both the country's and the capital's name. Added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015.

🇹🇳 has three distinct posting communities, each with their own cadence.

Tunisian travel and tourism is the dominant slice. Sidi Bou Said's blue doors and white walls are an Instagram cliché in the best sense. Djerba is one of the Mediterranean's quietest island destinations. Tozeur, Matmata, and the Sahara south of Douz host pilgrimage tours of the original Star Wars filming sites every spring. Carthage and Bardo Museum content cycles year-round. The flag often appears in travel-vlog opening cards and restaurant tags.

Diaspora identity. Around 750,000 Tunisians live in France, with major concentrations in Paris (40%), Lyon (12%), and Marseille (8%), plus large Italian communities concentrated in Sicily and Lazio. The diaspora drives 🇹🇳 posting around the Eid holidays, Carthage Eagles matches, and the January 14 Revolution anniversary. The Tunisian-Italian community especially uses 🇹🇳 alongside 🇮🇹 to mark dual-nation posts.

Football. The Tunisia national team (Carthage Eagles) qualified for the 2026 World Cup as the first team in tournament history to clinch a spot without conceding a goal, which produced a sustained 🇹🇳 spike in October 2025. Tunisia have qualified for every AFCON since 1994 (a 30-plus-year unbroken streak), with the 2025 AFCON ending in a Round of 16 penalty-shootout loss to Mali. Football posts in Tunisian Arabic always carry the flag.

Politics shows up sparingly. The 2011 Jasmine Revolution and ongoing democratic backsliding under President Kais Saied (who suspended parliament on July 25, 2021 and rewrote the constitution in 2022) generate news-cycle 🇹🇳 spikes, but Tunisian users are more cautious about overt political flag use than Algerians or Egyptians.

• 🏛️
  Capital: Tunis (36.81°N, 10.18°E)
• 👥
  Population: ~12.4 million (2025)
• 🗺️
  Area: 163,610 km² (smallest Maghreb country)
• 💵
  Currency: Tunisian dinar (TND, DT)
• 🗣️
  Languages: Arabic (official), Tunisian Derja, French (lingua franca)
• 📞
  Calling code: +216
• ⏰
  Time zone: CET (UTC+1), no DST
• 🌐
  Internet TLD: .tn

Foods that show up next to 🇹🇳

Landmarks that anchor travel content

Until the early 19th century, Tunisia flew a horizontal blue, red, and green tricolor, the Husainid dynasty's family colors. The shift came after the Battle of Navarino on October 20, 1827, when a combined British, French, and Russian fleet destroyed the Ottoman navy in the Greek War of Independence. Tunisian ships were attached to the Ottoman fleet at Navarino and were destroyed alongside it. The Bey, Al-Husayn II, decided Tunisia needed its own naval identity to avoid being swept up in future Ottoman conflicts.

In 1831, Al-Husayn II commissioned a new flag inspired by Ottoman symbolism (the crescent and star) but distinguished by a white disc that wasn't on the Ottoman banner. The flag was first hoisted on Tunisian naval vessels and gradually became the national symbol of the Beylik of Tunis. It survived 75 years of French protectorate rule (1881 to 1956) flying alongside the French tricolor, and was proclaimed the official flag of the Republic on June 1, 1959, three years after independence under Habib Bourguiba. Detailed proportions were finally codified into law on June 30, 1999.

The crescent's role. The crescent and star became the Ottoman state symbol in the late 18th century and was inherited by Tunisia, Turkey, Algeria, Libya, Pakistan, and most other modern Muslim-majority national flags. Tunisia's specific shape (a thicker, rounder crescent embracing the star inside a white disc) is unique within the family. The white disc itself is sometimes interpreted as the sun or as the dome of a mosque, though no official symbolism document exists.

Tunisia's flag is older than every European tricolor still in use except France's (1794), Netherlands' (1572 in essence), and Russia's (1696). It predates Italy's flag (1861), Germany's flag (1949 for the modern version), and the entire United States flag's current 50-star design (1960).

• 🌹
  January 14: Revolution and Youth Day: Marks the day President Ben Ali fled in 2011, ending 23 years of rule and igniting the Arab Spring.
• 🎆
  March 20: Independence Day: Marks the 1956 declaration of independence from France under Habib Bourguiba.
• 🕊️
  April 9: Martyrs' Day: Commemorates 1938 protesters killed by French colonial police while demanding an elected parliament.
• May 1: Labour Day: Standard workers' holiday.
• 🏛️
  July 25: Republic Day: Marks the 1957 abolition of the monarchy and proclamation of the Republic.
• ♀️
  August 13: Women's Day: Anniversary of the 1956 Code of Personal Status, one of the most progressive women's rights laws in the Arab world at the time.
• 🚢
  October 15: Evacuation Day: Marks the 1963 withdrawal of the last French troops from the Bizerte naval base.

• •Tunisia's flag is one of the oldest continuously used national flags in the world, adopted in 1831 under the Husainid dynasty.
• •Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in Sidi Bouzid on December 17, 2010 sparked the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring across 17 countries.
• •Tunisia's 1956 Code of Personal Status) under Habib Bourguiba banned polygamy on the day it was adopted: the most progressive women's-rights law in the Arab world at the time.
• •Harissa was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in December 2022, recognizing Tunisia as the spiritual home of the chili paste.
• •Tunisia became the first team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup without conceding a single goal in the entire qualifying campaign.
• •Carthage was founded in 814 BCE by Phoenician colonists, became the Mediterranean's dominant naval power, and was eventually destroyed by Rome in 146 BCE in the Third Punic War.
• •Tunisia's Hotel Sidi Driss in Matmata (used as Luke Skywalker's childhood home in Star Wars) is a working underground troglodyte hotel where you can spend the night.
• •Tunisia is the only Arab Spring country that successfully transitioned to a democratic system following the 2011 protests, though that progress has eroded under President Saied since 2021.