Will Saudi Arabia make Friday a working day? A proposal to that effect has sparked heated debates and elicited strong opinions. It is also proof that things are changing in Islam’s birthplace, home to its two holiest cities, Makkah and Madinah.
The Okaz newspaper recently published an op-ed titled “Friday is a working day”, breaking a taboo about Islam’s holy day of prayer.
In her piece, writer Mona Al-Otaibi questions the traditional Friday-Saturday weekend, saying that the kingdom needs an overhaul. This has sparked a storm on social media between those for and against it.
The author notes that Saudi Arabia suffers financial losses because Friday is an important working day in the world of finances.
Hence, Saudi authorities should consider a Saturday-Sunday weekend, like in the United Arab Emirates, which switched last year after announcing it 2021.
Under a decree issued by King Abdullah in 2013, the weekend was moved from Thursday-Friday, to Friday-Saturday in order to align Saudi financial and business activities with international markets,
Qatar, a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), was one of the first to adopt the Friday-Saturday weekend some 20 years ago, followed by Bahrain in 2006 and Kuwait in 200. The Sultanate of Oman implemented the change a month before Saudi Arabia in 2013.
In the Arab world the Friday-Saturday weekend is in place in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, and Iraq; in Lebanon (which has a large Christian population), Morocco and Tunisia, Saturday and Sunday are days off. In these countries, some businesses voluntarily close to allow employees to attend Friday prayers.
A prominent Saudi dissident and activist, known online as Mujtahidd, was among the first Saudi to react to the article. he suggests that the idea to “cancel the Friday holiday” probably came from former royal adviser Saud Al-Qahtani.