Flag of Kuwait

How to read it

Law No. 26 of 1961 on the national flag, issued on 7 September 1961 and amended on 18 November 1961, sets the design in its first article: a horizontal rectangle twice as long as it is high, divided into three equal horizontal stripes, green at the top, then white, then red, with a black trapezium whose long side runs the full height of the flag along the pole, whose short side is as high as the white stripe, and whose length is a quarter of the flag’s length. The present flag was raised on the flagpoles of government buildings for the first time on 24 November 1961. It is the flag for all purposes, state, civil and military, the Norwegian encyclopedia Store norske leksikon notes.

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The poem behind the colours

Kuwait’s embassy in Japan says the colours come from a poem by Safi al-Din al-Hilli, and the Kuwaiti papers Al-Rai and Al-Jarida quote the two lines: “We are a people whose character refuses, out of nobility, to begin harm against those who do no harm to us. White are our deeds, black our battles, green our pastures, red our swords.” The swords of the last line are “mawadi”, sharp blades. The UAE flag goes back to the same poet: The National writes that Abdullah Al Maainah’s winning design of 1971 was inspired by him.

Telling it from the UAE flag

The UAE flag has the same four colours, but its stripes run green, white and black from the top, and at the pole it has a straight-edged red band a quarter of the flag’s length, as the UAE government’s flag guideline describes it. Kuwait’s stripes are green, white and red, and its black trapezium narrows towards the fly to the height of the white stripe. Jordan’s flag has the colours in another order: black, white and green stripes from the top, with a red triangle at the pole holding a white seven-pointed star, under article 4 of Jordan’s constitution.

Flag Day and the flag-raising

Kuwait keeps 24 November as the day of its national flag, the date in 1961 when the present flag was first raised, Al-Rai writes. Each year a flag-raising ceremony at Bayan Palace, attended by the Emir, opens the celebrations for National Day and Liberation Day, Al-Jarida reported in February 2025. Before 1961 Kuwait used several flags, official and unofficial, among them a white crescent and star and a red flag with the word “Kuwait” in white.

How it is flown

Al-Rai lists the rules: the flag is kept clean and whole, replaced at once if its colours change or it is damaged, and not written on or used as a trademark or in advertising. It flies from sunrise to sunset, no other flag flies above it, and private buildings fly it on holidays and celebrations but not permanently. Hung vertically, the green is on the viewer’s right and the red on the left. Decree-Law No. 73 of 2025, published in the official gazette in June 2025, added a ban on flying foreign flags in Kuwait without a licence from the Minister of Interior, except during regional sports tournaments, and on flags and emblems of religious, social or tribal groups.