Which countries have a Friday-Saturday weekend?

The working week in the Arab world has traditionally revolved around Friday being the centre of the weekend as the sacred day of worship in Islam.

While that has meant some Muslim majority countries make Thursday and Friday their weekend, many have sought to align more closely with the non-Islamic world by designating a working week from Sunday to Thursday with weekends falling on Friday and Saturday.

Then there are some in the region that use the same working timetable as the West and non-Arab world in a bid to improve economic competitiveness and to be in line with global markets.

The UAE has become the latest country to shift its weekend to Saturday and Sunday starting from January.

Here is the situation across the Middle East:

GCC

Working weeks across the Gulf Co-operation Council countries are still Sunday-Thursday.

In 2013, Saudi Arabia changed the start of its two-day weekend from Thursday-Friday to Friday-Saturday to help co-ordinate business and banking days with the rest of the world.

Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar have also switched to a Friday-Saturday weekend.

Any country following the Sunday-Thursday model will have four working days overlapping with Western and multinational businesses.

Switching to the Saturday-Sunday weekend will add one more day.

Lebanon (Saturday and Sunday)

In 2017, Lebanon adopted a new official pattern of 35 weekly hours in government offices with Saturday and Sunday as a weekend.

But the multi-confessional country sought to appease as many people as possible with the move. Public sector work hours are Monday to Thursday 8am to 2pm, Friday 8am to 11am — allowing Muslims to attend noon prayers — and 8am-1pm on Saturday with Sunday off to allow Christians to pray.

Lebanon has among the highest number of public sector holidays in the world, taking into account the religious days of many of the 18 official sects within the country.

Tunisia (Saturday and Sunday)

In 2016, the authorities decided to consider Saturday as a working day in some public institutions but then Tunisia started following the Monday-Friday working week in 2021.

On Friday, many businesses take an extended lunch break for afternoon prayers.

Shoppers pass through the narrow alleys in the souks of the Medina in Tunis. Getty Images

Morocco (Saturday and Sunday)

The standard working week in Morocco is 48 hours, or eight hours a day, Monday-Friday.

Israel (Friday and Saturday)

The relevant laws in Israel designate Friday and Saturday as the official weekend as the Jewish Shabbat runs from dusk on Friday to dusk on Saturday.

Algeria (Friday and Saturday)

The country had a Thursday-Friday weekend since 1976 but changed the pattern to Friday-Saturday in 2009.

Egypt (Friday and Saturday)

Egypt's weekend starts on Friday and extends into Saturday. Some private companies, however, adopt a half-day on Thursdays.

Iraq (Friday and Saturday)

In Iraq, the weekend refers to Friday and Saturday.

Jordan (Friday and Saturday)

The working week in Jordan is Sunday-Thursday.

Libya (Friday and Saturday)

In 2006, the Libyan authorities decided to change the weekend to Friday-Saturday instead of having only Friday off.

Members of a family shop at a supermarket in Libya's capital Tripoli. AFP

Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill

Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.

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Uefa Nations League: How it works

The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.

The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.

Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.