Hello fellow Steemians and welcome to my review of the Bahrainian flag! This is the 13th flag that I will be covering in my series to cover most of the flags of the world! Certain flags have more meaning than others and certain countries and peoples show more pride and respect for their flags than others but something all the countries in the world have in common is that everyone gets a sense of belonging when you see your flag!
Today's Flag is the Flag of Bahrain!
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The flag of Bahrain is pretty interesting in how it uses what you would initially think to be triangles but its actually a serrated line representing mountains and the five pillars of Islam. The flag consist of a white band to the left with serrated triangles or mountains separating it from the red right side of the flag. The flag was adopted on February 14, 2002 after the Emir of Bahrain declared himself a king and the country became a kingdom! (the country had been an independent emirate since the British left in 1971)
The Kingdom of Bahrain is very strict in how you use the flag and has various laws than can punish citizens for using the flag in improper ways. For example, the flag can only be used on official government vehicles not in civilian vehicles, you can not use the flag for commercial purposes and a few other laws, if you break them you could be facing around 1 month in jail and a fine.
Meanings
The red represents the Kharijite,a sect of Islam that was born after the death of Muhammad when the caliphs where struggling to take over control between the factions (the story is way more complex than this, maybe for another post? its really interesting)
The white color represents peace between Bahrain and its neighboring countries.
The five mountains or pillars represent the five pillars of Islam, these pillars are:
- The Shahadah or Declaration of Faith.
- Salah or Prayer, the requirement of praying at least 5 times a day.
- Zakat or Charity.
- Sawm which is fasting during the month of Ramadan.
- The Hajj, which is a pilgrimage every muslim should do at least once in their lifetime to Mecca.
Other Flags!
This is the Royal standard of Bahrain, used to represent the king and the royal family.
Bahrain as a country or kingdom is relatively new and since before the 20th century they where not really organized under a single flag or country, they where rather a group of tribes and emir ruling the land, they don't really have a rich history with flags, but there's the Bahrain Air Force flag that is pretty cool too :-D
Facts
The country is currently going trough a demographic crisis, in the age groups of 25 to 54 there are almost twice as many men than there are women, 461.000 vs 241.000.
Bahrain was the first country to find oil in the Arabian Gulf back in 1932.
Bahrain is actually an Archipelago consisting of around 33 islands.
Bahrain once held a world Guinness record by hoisting the largest national flag in the world that stood at around 318 by 555 feet high! This record was later beaten again by Israel.
Location
The Kingdom of Bahrain is located on the Arabian Gulf, north of Qatar and east of Saudi Arabia.
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- The images in this article where sourced from Pixabay, a royalty free image source!