Persia as it was known, is a southwest Asian country characterized by mountains and deserts. The eastern portion is a high plateau with large salt flats and vast sand desert, while agriculture is largely concentrated in the narrow plains and valleys in the west or north where there is abundant rainfall. The huge oil reserves of Iran lies along the southwest, particularly along the Persian Gulf.
The history of Iran has been plagued with a perpetual pattern of autocratic rule extending back to Cyrus the Great in the sixth century. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who ruled in 1941, just extended this usual reign, but initiated social and economic reforms financed largely by petroleum exports. The westernization of Iran was viewed by opponents as tainting Islamic purity and cultural identity, thus when revolution broke out in 1978, the Shah fled.
Ayatollah Khomeini took over and imposed fundamentalist theocracy, and around 70,000 critics died in the process. The official state religion proclaimed is the Shiite branch of Islam. It is after the rise of Khomeini that the new National Flag of Iran came into being.
The current
Iran flag had been designed by Hamid Nadimi and was personally approved by the Ayatollah on May 9, 1980, but was officially adopted on July 29 of the same year. The flag includes three horizontal bands of green, red, and white, symbolizes vigor, peace and courage, with an emblem at the center expressive of the Islamic Revolution.
The emblem is actually a stylist representation of the facet of Islamic life; Allah, the Book, the Sword, and the five principles of Islam. Kufic script used for the Qur'an also appears along the edges of the red and green stripes.
by:
The Flagman
