Flag of Bangladesh


The national flag of Bangladesh was adopted officially on 17 January 1972. It consists of a red disc on top of a green field. The red disc is offset slightly toward the hoist so that it appears centred when the flag is flying. The disc represents the sun rising over Bengal, and also the blood of those who died for the independence of Bangladesh. The green field stands for the lushness of the land of Bangladesh and the eternal youth of Bangladeshis.
The flag is based on a similar flag used during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, which had a yellow map of the country inside the red disc. In 1972 this map was removed from the flag. One reason given was the difficulty for rendering the map correctly on both sides of the flag. The civil ensign and naval ensign place it in the canton of a red or white field, respectively.

Origin

The first version of the flag was designed and made by a section of student leaders and activists of Swadheen Bangla Nucleus on 6 June 1970, at room 108 of Iqbal Hall, Dhaka University; students involved with the design were namely Kazi Aref Ahmed, ASM Abdur Rab, Shahjahan Siraj, Manirul Islam, Swapan Kumar Choudhury, Quamrul Alam Khan Khasru, Hasanul Haq Inu, and Yousuf Salahuddin Ahmed. The flag was made from clothes donated by Bazlur Rahman Lasker, the owner of Apollo Tailors, Dhaka New Market.
A map of East Pakistan was first traced on a tracing paper from an atlas by Hasanul Haq Inu, Yousuf Salahuddin Ahmed and Enamul Haq, at Enamul's room in Quaid-I Azam Hall, EPUET. Later the map was painted in the red circle by Shib Narayan Das. On 2 March 1971, this initial version of the flag was hoisted in Bangladesh for the first time at Dhaka University, by student leader A. S. M. Abdur Rab, the then Vice President of Dhaka University Students' Union The flag was conceived so as to exclude the star and crescent considered as symbols of West Pakistan.
According to CIA World Fact Book, the green used in the flag represents the lushness of the green landscape of the country. On 13 January 1972 the flag was modified. The map from the center was removed, and the red disk moved towards the hoist. The red in the center is a symbolic representation of the blood Bengalis shed in the Bangladesh Liberation War.

Design

According to Bangladeshi government specifications, following is the specification of the national flag:

Protocol

The national flag of Bangladesh is flown on all working days on important government buildings and offices, e.g., the president house, legislative assembly buildings, etc. All ministries and the secretariat buildings of Bangladesh, offices of the high court, courts of district and session judges, offices of the commissioners of divisions, deputy commissioner/collectors, chairman, upazila parishad, central and district jails, police stations, primary, secondary and higher secondary level educational institutions and other buildings notified by the government from time to time.
Ministers of state and persons accorded the status of a minister of state, deputy ministers and persons accorded the status of a deputy minister while on tour outside the capital within the country or abroad are entitled to fly the flag on their motor vehicles and vessels.

Official residences

The following persons must fly the flag on their official residence:
The following persons are entitled to fly the flag on their motor vehicles and vessels:
The national flag of Bangladesh is flown on public and private buildings throughout Bangladesh and the office premises of Bangladeshi diplomatic missions and consular posts on the following days and occasions:
The national flag of Bangladesh is flown at half-mast on the following days:
The following days are notified by the government:
On 16 December 2013, the 42nd Victory Day of Bangladesh, 27,117 people gathered at the National Parade Ground in Dhaka's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar and created a "human flag" which was recorded in Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest human national flag.