Flags, Symbols & Currency of Afghanistan

The current National Flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was officially adopted on August 19, 2013. The tricolor was inspired by the Afghan King, Amanullah Khan during his visit to Europe in 1928; and the original horizontal tricolor flag design was based on the flag of Germany. The Afghan flag is also one of the six national flags globally to feature a building in its design.

The National Flag of Afghanistan is a tricolor featuring three equal vertical bands of black (hoist side), red, and green. The classical National Emblem is portrayed in white at the center of the flag on the red band and slightly overlapping the green and the black bands. The country’s tumultuous past ridden with great difficulties has been symbolized in the country’s national flag. The black color depicts the dark past and the troubled history of Afghanistan dating back to the 19th century when the country was a protected state of the British Empire. The red color represents the bloodshed during the fight for independence, which came to an end with the signing of the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919. The green color symbolizes the hope and prosperous Islamic future that keeps the nation alive despite its troubled history. The flag has a height to width proportion ratio of 2:3.

History of the Flag of Afghanistan

26 different flags have been used in Afghanistan since 1709. The first flag was introduced by the Hotak dynasty when it came to power in the region. During the 20^th century, Afghanistan had about 18 different national flags which were more than any other country during that period. Although the nation's flags have changed numerous times, the same three colors (black, red, and green) have been featured on most of the flags. Every national flag since 1928 had an emblem in its center. The emblem with a mosque first appeared in 1901 and the wheat was first used in 1928. After the defeat of the Taliban, the present Afghanistan flag is the latest one to fly over this long-embattled country. It displays the Pan-Arab colors of red, green, and black, with the national emblem overlapping into the green and black bands instead of being completely contained in the red band.

National Anthem

• Anthem Title: Millî Surûd"/"Millî Tarâna" (Afghan National Anthem)
• Music Composer: Babrak Wassa 
• Lyricist: Abdul Bari Jahani
• Year of Completion: Unspecified
• Date of Adoption: May 2006

The Afghan National Anthem known as "Millî Surûd" in Pashto (which means 'national anthem') was adopted in May 2006. The lyrics of the anthem were written by Abdul Bari Jahani and the music was composed by Babrak Wassa. The 14 ethnic groups of the nation have been mentioned in the national anthem. As per the Constitution of Afghanistan, the lyrics of the national anthem should be written in Pashto. However, there is controversy regarding the same as people have argued that the anthem should have no lyrics to take into account the diverse ethnic and religious groups inhabiting the country.

The afghani is the currency of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (“Afs”, AFN). The currency is issued by the Da Afghanistan Bank, which is the central bank of Afghanistan.

The currency exists in several currency values including 1Af, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, as well as 1000Afs. There are only three coins in circulation worth 1Af, 2, and 5Afs.

Historical Currencies of Afghanistan

Before the introduction of the Afghani in 1925, the nation was using the Afghan rupee and other Indian currencies that were adopted in 1891. At that time, the afghani was divided into 100 pul and one amani was equal to 20 afghani. The rupee coins were used up until their complete removal in 1978. Before this removal, the maiden afghani banknotes were introduced in 1935. Except for the period during World War I, market forces always controlled the rate of foreign exchange in Afghanistan. The Bank-e Milli came up with such a plan in 1935 where one Indian Rupee was fixed at 4Afs.

After the establishment of the Da Afghanistan Bank, the rates were regulated closely but the efforts were thwarted by the civil war in the 1980s. Several dysfunctional governments and warlords began to create their currencies without any form of regulation or standardization. About 100 trillion Afghani was declared worthless in 1996. Matters worsened when the US invaded Afghanistan in 2002. By September 2002, one US dollar was equal to a whopping 52,000Afs. In 2002, the currency was denominated. The new denomination replaced the older one issued by the administration of former President Rabbani, which was now equivalent to 0.001 of the new afghani. Besides, the currency was finally back under the control of the central bank instead of the warlords. The majority of the older currencies were destroyed by the end of the same year. At that time, one dollar was equal to 43 of the new afghani.