Flag of the United Arab Emirates

How to read it

Article 5 of the UAE constitution gives the union a flag, leaves its design to a law, and lets each emirate fly its own flag within its territory. The government’s flag guideline for federal entities and embassies describes the flag: a rectangle whose height is half its length, with a red vertical band next to the pole a quarter of the flag’s length, and three equal horizontal stripes across the rest, green at the top, white in the middle and black at the bottom. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan raised it for the first time on 2 December 1971, the day the union was formed. The President’s flag adds the federal emblem in the middle of the white stripe, and no federal body may fly it.

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Who designed it, and what he meant by the colours

Abdullah Mohammed Al Maainah designed the flag at 19, for a competition advertised in the newspaper Al Ittihad in 1971; Gulf News says he only knew he had won when he saw it raised on 2 December. The National counts more than 1,000 other entries; a Gulf News article of 2021 says more than 10,000. The National says his entry was inspired by the poet Safi al-Din al-Hilli, the poet Kuwait’s flag takes its colours from. Al Maainah has explained the colours in different words over the years. In 2019 he told Gulf News that he used black for the oil that transformed the country, green for fertility and prosperity, and red and white because they were already in some of the emirates’ flags. In 2021 he gave green for fertility and prosperity, white for peace and tolerance, black for the solidity and strength of the land and red for courage and sacrifice. In 2025 Gulf News wrote that, contrary to popular belief, the black does not stand for oil. He later became foreign minister.

Telling it from Kuwait’s and Jordan’s flags

Kuwait’s flag has the same four colours, but its stripes run green, white and red from the top, and at the pole it has a black trapezium that narrows to the height of the white stripe. The UAE flag has green, white and black stripes and a straight-edged red band at the pole. Jordan’s flag has black, white and green stripes, black at the top, and a red triangle at the pole holding a white seven-pointed star, under article 4 of Jordan’s constitution.

Flag Day and the rules for flying it

The UAE marks Flag Day on 3 November. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, established it in 2013 to commemorate Sheikh Khalifa’s accession as President in 2004; it is not a public holiday, and people are invited to raise the flag together at 11 am, The National writes. The government’s guideline has the flag hung vertically with the red band at the top, and flown at half-mast when a day of national mourning is officially declared. The National lists other rules: nothing added to the flag, no other flag on the same pole, and no printing of the flag on disposable things or food.