The Lion and Sun flag is a historic Iranian national and opposition flag consisting of a green–white–red horizontal tricolour charged with the Lion and Sun emblem. It served as the state flag of Iran from 1907 until the 1979 Islamic Revolution, after which it was strictly banned. Since then, the flag has had no official status but continues to be used as a historical and political symbol, particularly among diaspora Iranians and opposition movements.
Flag description
Lion and Sun emblem The emblem consists of a male lion in front of a rising sun, coloured in gold and centred on the white band. Its appearance has varied over time: in some versions, the lion holds a sword, while in others it stands unarmed, with all four paws on the ground. The sun is nowadays depicted as a simple disc with rays, though earlier designs often included a face. Some versions include a thin horizontal base beneath the lion. A crown was sometimes displayed above the emblem on the national flag, while the war flag and naval ensign additionally featured a surrounding wreath.
History
Pre-Islamic origins
The Lion and Sun is an emblem that is intrinsically Iranian and can be traced back thousands of years, even predating the Achaemenid era.
During the Achaemenid period, the Lion and Sun motif appeared in several forms. One such example is a seal depicting Artaxerxes II accompanied by Anahita, with the latter riding a lion with a sun symbolising Mithra appearing behind her.
Safavid and Qajar era The emblem continued to appear intermittently throughout the centuries until the emblem was adopted during the Safavid era to distinguish the country's national identity from neighbouring powers, such as the Ottoman Empire with the star and crescent.
The Lion and Sun only became a national symbol during the Qajar era. One of the first appearances of the lion holding a sword on a flag was during the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813); the sword was added at the recommendation of Molla Ahmad Naraqi.
The first instance of the emblem appearing on a tricolour flag is thought to be on an early green–white–red design with thin green and red stripes, designed by Amir Kabir and used from 1848 to 1852 during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar. The first equal-height stripe design is said to have appeared by the late 1880s. These accounts are poorly documented and may be entirely unfounded as they are far less certain than the flag officially adopted in 1907.
Late Qajar and Pahlavi era
The first official version of the Lion and Sun flag was adopted in the wake of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906 and codified in the Supplementary Fundamental Laws of 7 October 1907 as the state flag of the country. The new banner was described as a tricolour of "green, white, and red, with the emblem of the Lion and the Sun." On 4 September 1910, a decree specified the exact details of the emblem, including the size and position of the lion, and the shape of its tail, sword, and sun. During this period, the colours of the flag were very pale, with the red appearing closer to pink in practice.
Following Reza Shah's coup d'état and through the Pahlavi era, the flag underwent several gradual changes. In 1933, the colours of the flag were darkened, and the sun was stripped of its facial features. In 1964, the flag's proportions were altered from 1:3 to 4:7. In 1972, the government introduced a new flag using a standardised design for the Lion and Sun emblem, though it is not clear if it replaced all pre-existing designs, as the style of the emblem continued to vary depending on the manufacturer.
Post-Islamic revolution Following the overthrow of the monarchy in 1979 at the onset of the Islamic Revolution, the interim government began phasing out the Lion and Sun in favour of the plain tricolour. However, after the Islamic takeover in 1980, the new government outlawed the use of the old flag entirely, justifying the restrictions by claiming that the banner was a symbol of the "oppressive Westernising monarchy," despite the emblem's traditional Shia usage. In 1980, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini demanded the "ominous" Lion and Sun be removed from all government offices as an "artefact of the tyrannical regime".
After the 1979 revolution
The Lion and Sun remained the official emblem of Iran until after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when the Lion and Sun symbol was—by decree—removed from public spaces and government organizations and replaced by the present-day Emblem of the Islamic Republic. For the Islamic revolution, the Lion and Sun symbol allegedly resembled the "oppressive Westernising monarchy" that had to be replaced, despite the fact the symbol had old Shi'a meanings and the lion was associated with Ali. In the present day, the lion and the sun emblem is still used by a segment of the Iranian community in exile as the symbol of opposition to the Islamic Republic. Several exiled opposition groups, including the monarchists and MEK, use the Lion and Sun emblem. In Los Angeles and cities with large Iranian communities the Lion and Sun emblem is largely used on mugs, Iranian flags, and souvenirs to an extent that far surpasses its display during the years of monarchy in the homeland. During the Mahsa Amini protests in 2022, a number of alternative variant versions of the Lion and Sun were proposed to distinguish the images of new Iran from its historical adaptation of Lion and Sun.
In recent years, some Islamic Republic officials claim the Lion and Sun as a symbol of Islam in an effort to undermine the ongoing 2025–2026 Iranian protests as the Lion itself represents Imam Ali. However, the Lion and Sun motif has been in display during the Achaemenid Empire. During the protests in Iran as well as the diaspora protests, the Lion and Sun flag was extensively displayed.
Standardization of the Lion and Sun
In a regulation dated 8 September 1910, the details of the Lion and Sun emblem—including the manner of drawing the lion’s tail (in the form of an italic S), and the position and size of the lion, sword, and sun—were specified.Yearbook of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Iran). Tehran: Faroos, 1913 (1332 LH).Najmabadi, Afsaneh. Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, pp. 68–88. Chapter II.
At the end of the article “The Lion and Sun: The Official Emblem of the State of Iran” by Ebrahim Mokalla, various images of Lion and Sun motifs have been collected. According to the accompanying notes, one of these images appears to belong to the “Instructions for the Flags of the Sublime State” (Dastur al-‘Amal-e Beyraqhā-ye Dowlat-e ‘Aliyyeh), which was prepared to standardize the form of Iran’s flag at the time. The date of this regulation is unknown. According to these instructions, the arrangement of the three colours of the flag was the same as its present configuration; the Lion and Sun were drawn large enough to extend across all three green, white, and red bands; nothing was depicted beneath the lion’s feet; the lion was painted in three-quarter profile; and an oblique human face was drawn within the sun.Mokalla, Ebrahim. “The Lion and Sun: The Official Emblem of the State of Iran.” Journal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Iran), no. 12, 1965 (1344 SH), pp. 106–170. Available at Noormags (subscription required). Accessed 8 January 2020.
In a regulation dated 7 January 1958, the characteristics of the Iranian flag were described as follows:“Regulation No. 83072: Approval Decree Concerning the Flag of Iran.” National Portal of Laws and Regulations of Iran. Tehran: Vice Presidency for Legal Affairs (Iran); Deputy for Codification, Consolidation, and Publication of Laws and Regulations, 1957 (1336 SH). Archived 18 June 2018. Accessed 18 June 2018. (In Persian). “The Lion and Sun motif, in golden yellow, is placed in the centre of the flag on the white section and is drawn in such a way that the lion’s head faces toward the flagpole, the sword is held vertically in the lion’s hand, and the lion’s feet are directed toward the red band. On one side of the flag, where the lion’s head faces to the viewer’s left, the sword is in the lion’s right hand, the lion’s gaze is inclined to the left, and the lion’s tail is shaped like an italic S with a curve upward. On the other side of the flag, the reverse applies; that is, the sword is in the lion’s left hand, the lion’s gaze is inclined to the right, and the lion’s tail is the mirror image of an italic S. The Lion and Sun on both sides of the flag must correspond exactly. Beneath the lion’s feet, extending from the line of the sword to the point where an imaginary perpendicular line descending from the tip of the lion’s tail would intersect, a straight line proportional to the dimensions of the image is drawn.”
In another regulation dated 14 February 1959, the Lion and Sun were placed upon a folded ribbon instead of a horizontal line. According to Yahya Zoka, in 1965 (1344 SH), a commission was formed at the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran to establish official standards for the Iranian flag. In this standard, the lion’s support was once again described as a line rather than a folded ribbon.Zoka, Yahya. “History of Changes and Transformations in the Flag and Emblem of the State of Iran from the Beginning of the Thirteenth Century AH to the Present (6).” Honar va Mardom, vol. 4, no. 38 (November-December 1965 / Azar 1344 SH), pp. 21–30. Tehran: Ministry of Culture and Arts (Iran). (In Persian).
Modernist stylized design of the 1970s
In the 1970s—the final period of constitutional monarchy in Iran—a modernist stylized design was used in official documents, postage stamps, birth certificate (civil registry), the Prime Minister’s aircraft, the entrance of the Prime Minister’s palace, and the national flag of Iran . During the 1970s, the lion's form was modified and redrawn in a neater style, in accordance with modern graphic design conventions. The design was also retained during the early period of the Iranian Revolution, when the Lion and Sun continued to be used on state flags and as the state emblem.
This design continued in use into the early period of the Islamic Republic. On 30 January 1980, with the introduction of the first emblem of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Lion and Sun were officially abandoned.“Emblem of the Islamic Republic Approved by the Revolutionary Council.” Bamdad (newspaper), p. 3, 30 January 1980 (10 Bahman 1358 SH). Available via Fars News Agency. Archived 14 April 2019. (In Persian). Visual evidence of this design is presented below.
Contemporary use Historically, since the Islamic Revolution, the Lion and Sun flag had been associated with monarchist movements, while some republican and reformist groups preferred the plain tricolour. Over time, the Lion and Sun banner has been adopted more broadly as a symbol of Iranian national identity and opposition to the Islamic Republic rather than exclusively symbolising the pre-1979 monarchy.
Public opinion data suggests the banner's growing recognition and popularity within the country. In a February 2022 survey conducted by GAMAAN in Iran, prior to the outbreak of the Mahsa Amini protests, 46% of respondents chose the Lion and Sun flag as their preferred national flag, compared with 30% who chose the current official flag, and 19% who preferred the plain tricolour without symbols.
Use in protests
The flag is regularly seen at international rallies across North America and Europe, where members of the Iranian diaspora wave it to show solidarity with protest movements in Iran. It has been particularly prominent during demonstrations in major Western cities such as London, Berlin, Paris, Munich, Toronto, and Los Angeles. It has become a core emblem of the anti-regime protest movement.
2025–2026 protests