Afghanistan
What the source says
Referenced, awaiting primary-source reviewThe current flag was adopted on 15 August 2021, with the Taliban's victory. It is a white field with a black Shahada inscribed in the calligraphic Thuluth script. The white stands for "the purity of faith and government." The Taliban has issued a decree requiring the use of the Islamic Emirate's flag in all official settings and outlawing the tricolor.
Referenced, not verified: a secondary work states this, and the document that constitutes the flag has not been read for this entry. What the marks mean.
Colors and meaning
Black(r1) #000000
Symbolism and history(r1)
A plain white field bearing the Shahada in black script, adopted as the state flag after the Taliban's 2021 return to power; the Taliban then issued a decree outlawing the preceding republic's tricolor.
Most similar flags
The 6 closest of the 194 other national flags, ranked by a similarity index computed from the flag images themselves. The number is that index, 0–100 — not a claim that the two flags are “X% identical”.
- Mexico68
the same vertical band layout; the same colours in similar amounts.
- Portugal65
the same vertical band layout; the same colours in similar amounts.
- Belgium63
the same vertical band layout; similar colours in a different arrangement.
- Benin63
the same vertical band layout; similar colours in a different arrangement.
- Guinea63
the same vertical band layout; similar colours in a different arrangement.
- Kenya62
near-identical colour proportions.
Computed at build time: each flag is rasterised to 64x48, and the score is 0.55 × colour overlap + 0.45 × structure. A different weighting would rank these differently. How the index works.
References — not verification
(r1) Referenced to Flag of Afghanistan (Wikipedia (English)) on 2026-07-17. States the adoption year, which colors the flag has, what the colors mean and the symbolism and history on this page. The passage it states them in is quoted at the top of this entry.
Further reading: Flag of Afghanistan on Wikipedia