Flag of Qatar

How to read it

Law No. 14 of 2012 on the Qatari flag, issued by the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, on the eve of National Day in December 2012, sets the flag’s shape, design, colours, sizes and materials in an annex. Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summarises it: a horizontal rectangle of two colours, maroon (“Al Adam”) and white, with the white next to the pole and nine isosceles triangles between the colours, their bases in the white and their points in the maroon; the maroon is Pantone 1955 C. The flag is 11:28, the only national flag more than twice as long as it is high, the Norwegian encyclopedia Store norske leksikon notes; it dates the flag to 9 July 1971 and says flags of more ordinary proportions are in use too.

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Telling it from Bahrain’s flag

Bahrain’s flag has the same layout in red, with five white points instead of nine and proportions of 3:5, the encyclopedia notes. Bahrain’s flag law of 2002 gives its five points to the five pillars of Islam. Qatar’s is maroon, with nine points, and much longer for its height.

How the red became maroon

Accounts of the colour differ. According to Store norske leksikon, flags of roughly the present design have been used since 1860, in white and red; sun-bleaching of the natural dyes made the red look browner, and the maroon was officially adopted in 1963. Marhaba writes that the red was changed first to dark violet and then to maroon in 1936, citing records that give one reason: the old flag was almost identical to Bahrain’s. It adds that the shade of maroon and the proportions of white to maroon were standardised in 1949. The Peninsula, reporting the 2012 law, says the law names the flag “Al Addaam”, a name first used by Sheikh Mohamed bin Thani in 1851, when he united the tribes, who had each carried their own flag into battle, under one banner.

What the 2012 law asks of people

Anyone who sees the flag being raised or lowered must stop and stand upright, and people stand and face the flag when the national anthem is sung, the Peninsula reported. Hung horizontally, the flag has the white on the left; hung vertically, the white is at the top. It may not be flown faded or damaged, changed, or have photographs or designs added, and it may not be used as a trademark or in advertising without permission. A flag no longer fit for use is burned until nothing of it is left.