Roj: the sun with 21 rays

The sun is called Roj, the Kurdish word for sun and day. What it stands for on the flag is tied above all to Newroz: the Kurdistan Region Presidency states that the 21 rays represent the Kurdish new year that begins on 21 March.

Newroz is the turn of the year, the moment light returns after the dark. The designer of the standardized flag chose 21 for the same reason, as a number of rebirth, so the official reading and the designer’s reading point the same way.

In the 1998 to 1999 specification the sun sits at the exact centre of the flag. Including its rays it spans precisely half the flag’s height; the disc alone spans a quarter. The rays have straight sides and sharp points, and adjacent rays touch at the base without any gap.

The single most useful check: one ray must point straight up, on the vertical line through the centre. During standardization the Flag Institute suggested a smaller sun with fewer rays; the designers kept 21 rays reaching into the red and green bands.