Writing fiction within a feminist framework is a helpful way in bringing up women’s issues to a wider readership that is not necessarily familiar with feminist scholarship. Through creative narrative an author can dispel misunderstandings, correct misconceptions and represent underrepresented women who have been rendered invisible or pushed to the margins by hegemonic discourses. My novella tells the story of a group of Muslim women doing community work in Turkey. Navigating their way in contemporary Turkey, these women dispel the upheld literary stereotypes of Muslim women. Through their work and dedication, these women show that they are not victims of a suppressive religion, or escapees from an oppressive culture. Instead they see themselves as participants in a noble cause for the benefit of the wider society. The impetus for their service is drawn from the main sources of their religion: Quran and the example of the prophet Muhammad.

This thesis investigated the reactions to the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) recent lift of the ban against the Islamic headscarf in the Turkish Parliament. The reactions by the oppositional party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), were analysed through Norman Fairclough’s understanding of critical discourse analysis, which aims to illuminate unequal power relations created or recreated by the production of discursive practises, which is believed to ultimately affect social practises. The method of critical discourse analysis was accompanied by the feminist critique of orientalism, intended to assess how headscarved women are stereotyped and homogenised through orientalist ideas. The analysis resulted in an understanding of the complex power relations between the ruling party and the main oppositional party, as well as the effect of using orientalist ideas in discourse, possibility contributing to an increasingly extensive polarisation and, thus, the risk of increased conflicts between the secular groups and the more religiously observant groups in the Turkish society.

In this project, I suggest a Deleuzian ontological perspective to address the interconnected and relational constitution of Muslim women‘s experiences and practices to illuminate the multiple-layers of their lives. Namely, I call into question the category ―Islamist,‖ used for contemporary headscarf-wearing women in Turkey, and examine how this categorization erases contingency, specificity, and relationality of women‘s experiences. For this purpose, I articulate the conception of body as a relational and affective multiplicity based on a Deleuzian ontology. According to this ontology, bodies are composed of an infinite number of smaller bodies through the confluence of relations and the creative capacity of affects, which are produced by this relational flux. Since the body is a relational and affective aggregate and a multiplicity within an assemblage, it is not a stable ontological essence or determined by overarching structures, but it is instead dynamic, continually changing, and always in a process of becoming. Since this Deleuzian approach problematizes the stability and singularity of identities, it offers a radical change for the framing of the question of Muslim women. This approach provides useful means to illuminate the experiences, desires, and practices of women in their contexts and through the particular characters of their relations and affects. Therefore, this project stresses the idea that we need analytical tools which allow us to attend to dynamic configurations of Muslim women without reducing them to existing categories or marginalities. / Religion

In 2004 a law banning all religious affiliation in public schools in France came into force. This started a heavy debate in the whole of Europe on whether this law is a violation of human rights law on the basis on freedom of religion and the freedom to manifest his/hers religion or belief in worship. This had the greatest impact on Muslim girls wearing the Islamic headscarf. This is a study of the legal framework of the law in the light of human rights perspective. It is also a semi comparison between the French and the United Kingdom way of approaching the issue with the Islamic headscarf in public schools.Keywords: religion,

The present study tested the mortality salience (MS) hypothesis of Terror Management Theory (TMT) on attitudes towards allowance of headscarf in the universities. Sample of the current study consisted of 208 university students. Religious, secular and liberal views were evaluated by participants. The results of 2 (Attitude: Supporters, Opponents) X 2 (Condition: Mortality salience, Control) ANOVAs showed that despite the lack of significant main effect of condition and interaction effect, MS tended to lead supporters of headscarf to evaluate both religious and secular essay more favorably but the liberal essay less favorably. On the contrary, opponents of headscarf tended to become supportive of the secular essay but critical of the religious and liberal essay following MS. Findings were discussed considering past literature and alternative theoretical perspectives.

The Muslim headscarf conceals the hair and other external features of a face. For this reason it may have implications for the recognition of such faces. The experiments reported in this thesis aimed to investigate anecdotal reports, which suggested that headscarf wearing females are more difficult to recognise. This was done by employing a series of experiments which involved a yes/no recognition task. The stimuli that were used were images of South Asian females who were photographed wearing a Muslim headscarf (HS), with their own hair visible (H), and a third set of stimuli were produced in which their external features were cropped (CR). Most importantly, participants either took part in the condition in which the state of the external features remained the same between the learning and test stage (Same) or the condition in which they were switched between the two stages (Switch). In one experiment participants completed a Social Contact Questionnaire. Surprisingly, in the Same condition, there was no difference in the recognition rates of faces that were presented with hair, with headscarf, or cropped faces. However, participants in the Switch condition performed significantly worse than those in the Same condition. It was also found that there was no difference in the % of fixations to the external features between the Same and Switch condition, which implied that the drop in performance between the two conditions was not mediated by eye-movements. These results suggest that the internal and external features of a face are processed interactively and, although the external features were not fixated on, a manipulation to them caused a drop in performance. This was confirmed in a separate experiment in which participants were unable to ignore the external features when they were asked to judge the similarity of the internal features of pairs of faces. Pairs of headscarf faces were rated as being more similar compared to pairs of faces with hair. Finally, for one group of participants it was found that contact with headscarf-wearing females was positively correlated with the recognition of headscarf-wearing faces. It was concluded that the headscarf per se did not impair face recognition and that there is enough information in the internal features of a face for optimal recognition, however, performance was disrupted when the presence or absence of the headscarf was manipulated.

This thesis analyses religious discrimination in employment, using an applied comparison of the law in the UK, France and Germany. To this end, the thesis first explores national church-state relations, establishing potential links to religious discrimination at work. The investigation then moves on to the standards set by the Council of Europe and the European Union, against which the law in the UK, France and Germany will be measured against. The final chapter brings together the findings in an overall comparison of the national law, with particular emphasis on the role of church-state relations and impact on religious minorities. The original contribution of this thesis to knowledge lies in the assessment of the topic in the context of three jurisdictions, its interconnectedness with the ECHR and EU frameworks, using the framework of church-state relations. The thesis reveals and explains similarities and differences between the law in the three jurisdictions, as well as the effects on employees practising their religion and underlying attitudes that formed the law. After identifying substantive neutrality as a promising characteristic of church-state models, it was set as a benchmark for assessment throughout the thesis. Themes emerging from the research reflect significant differences regarding religious discrimination in employment in the UK, France and Germany. Particularly striking is the arguably deliberate targeting of, and clearly detrimental impact on religious minorities by means of indirectly discriminating law in France and Germany, as well as some directly discriminating provisions that were enacted in the course of the German ‘headscarf debate’. It is suggested, accordingly, that stereotypical assumptions about ‘otherness’ have influenced legislation, as well as case law, using church-state relations to underscore the decisive arguments. Due to its largely hypothetical nature, the assessment of the domestic laws’ compatibility with European international and supranational legal frameworks result in a number of cautious predictions. Widespread compliance appears fairly likely in relation to the law in the UK, whereas French and German law can be challenged in several regards. Finally, this research contributes proposals aiming at effective solutions for a variety of religious discrimination scenarios pertinent in the UK, French and German work environments.

This diploma thesis deals with the veiling issue in Turkey. The first theoretical part is trying to map out the issues with an emphasis on the diverse interpretations and perceptions of the scarf / hijab. The work perceives the scarf as a symbol which represents more than just the Islamic religion. These multiple interpretations were caused primarily by the historical development of the country, especially the specific modernization process of Turkey which has been linked to the process of westernization. Mainly because of this the headscarf was for many years regarded as something obsolete, unfashionable. Many people perceived the scarf as something that does not belong in modern Turkey. This situation had affect the veilling issue a lot. Women were prohibited by law to wear a scarf in public areas. For this reason the work shows this issue also in the historical context which goes back to the 19th century - to the Ottoman Empire. The second part comprises the empirical part is devoted to qualitative research. For the purpose of this work interviews with Turkish university students were carried out which focused on their motivation of covering or not covering and other phenomena associated with this topic. Interviews were conducted both with veiled, and with unveiled girls because of the...

This essay examines the arguments behind the ban of the headscarf in schools in Skurups county that the Swedish Democrats/Sverigedemokraterna (a party in the Swedish Parliament) submitted. The motion was voted through in Skurups county with help of Moderaterna and the local Skurupspartiet. The ban of the headscarf was towards both children and adults in schools. The methodological approach in this essay is developed by Carol Lee Bacchi and is called “What’s the problem represented to be?”. The starting point of the WPRmethod is the representation of a problem and aims to distinguish how problems are described and the underlying factors and consequences that are included. The material that is being examined is the motion behind the ban of the headscarf and two articles who argue about the ban of the veil. The focus in this essay is to analyze the arguments. The theoretical approach is about how gender and nations are constructed from Yuval-Davis book Gender and Nation and Eduards book Kroppspolitik.

Depuis la loi interdisant le port de signes religieux "ostensibles" dans les écoles publiques (2004), un changement progressif s'est opéré en France. De l'interdiction du port du foulard intégral dans l'espace public (2010) aux mesures touchant les parents d'élèves (2012) et les employées des crèches privées (2014), les femmes portant le foulard islamique ont graduellement été exclues de différents espaces publics. Ces mesures sont souvent justifiées au nom de la nécessité de défendre la République ou de revitaliser les valeurs qui la sous-tendent. À travers quels processus politiques y compris discursifs l'exclusion des femmes voilées est-elle devenue une composante de la promotion des valeurs républicaines ?Ma recherche se penche sur cette question à l'aide d'une approche conceptuelle et discursive de l'étude des idéologies politiques. Plus précisément, en ancrant mon analyse dans les discours publics entourant quatre "affaires du voile", ma recherche met en lumière la transformation graduelle du républicanisme français – une construction complexe à travers laquelle les concepts politiques acquièrent un sens. Cette analyse de l'idéologie républicaine française dans le contexte des "affaires du voile" révèle et continuité et changement. Continuité, car les anciens principes de liberté, égalité et fraternité y demeurent centraux ; et changement, car de nouveaux idéaux ont modifié la signification de son noyau conceptuel. Dans le chapitre 4, "Le foulard de l'étudiante : Le succès du sécularisme", j'analyse le début de ce processus. En examinant la controverse publique au sujet du port du foulard islamique dans les écoles publiques, je démontre comment les acteurs politiques français ont graduellement construit la question de l'égalité des sexes – qui, historiquement, a été plutôt marginale dans la pensée républicaine française – comme une valeur contiguë au principe de la laïcité, ouvrant ainsi la porte à d'autres redéfinitions. Dans le chapitre 5, "La burqa dans l'espace public : L'ordre social républicain", mon analyse démontre comment les hommes politiques et les juristes, en visant à interdire le port du voile intégral, ont revivifié et transformé la notion de l'ordre public à travers la construction d'une nouvelle définition de l'ordre social. Dès lors, le républicanisme français s'oriente vers la protection de "valeurs communes". D'un point de vue théorique, je soutiens que ce glissement implique une transformation naissante au sein même du noyau républicain : la priorisation de fraternité aux dépens de liberté et d'égalité. Le chapitre 6, "Baby-Loup et l'emploi privé : de discrimination à la cohésion sociale", et le chapitre 7, "Mères 'voilées' et sorties scolaires : une extension de la norme sociale républicaine", analysent la consolidation et les conséquences du noyau républicain transformé : la priorisation de l'intérêt public au détriment des droits et libertés individuels. Ces chapitres démontrent comment les acteurs politiques et juridiques ont appliqué ce républicanisme remanié aux nouveaux espaces et aux nouveaux groupes. Ce faisant, ils ont contribué à l'émergence et à l'enracinement d'un nouveau discours de cohésion sociale, imprégné par l'exigence de neutralité religieuse individuelle et conditionné par l'exclusion des femmes "voilées" d'une variété d'espaces publics. / Since the law prohibiting the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols in public schools (2004), a gradual development has taken place in France. From the law banning full-face covering in public space (2010) to measures concerning the parents of students (2012) and the employees of private nurseries (2014), women wearing the Islamic headscarf have step-by-step been excluded from different spheres of public life. These measures have been publicly justified by the necessity of defending the French Republic or of reinvigorating its underlying principles. Through which political including discursive processes did the public promotion of republican values come to signify the exclusion of headscarf-wearing Muslim women from public spaces?My research tackles this question by employing a conceptual and discursive approach to the study of political ideology. More specifically, by focusing on the public discourses surrounding four so-called "veil affairs," my research sheds light on the gradual transformation of French republicanism – a complex construct through which political concepts gain meaning. Examining contemporary French republicanism through the context of the "veil affairs" reveals both continuity and change. Continuity, because the age-old principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity still form its cornerstone; and change, because newer ideals have modified the meaning of its conceptual core. In Chapter 4, "The Student's Headscarf: The Success of Sexularism," I analyze the beginning of this process. By examining the public controversy surrounding the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in public schools, I show how French political elites gradually constructed the question of gender equality – which, historically, has been rather marginal in French republican thought – as a value adjacent to the principle of laïcité, thereby opening the door for further redefinitions. In Chapter 5, "The Burqa in Public Space: The Republican Social Order," my empirical analysis demonstrates that, in aiming to ban face-covering veils, French political and legal actors ended up reviving and transforming the notion of public order through the construction of a new definition of republican social order. Thus, French republicanism took an important turn towards the protection of "shared values." From a theoretical point of view, I argue that this shift implies a nascent transformation within the very core of the republican-ideological construct: the prioritization of fraternity over liberty and equality. Chapter 6, "Baby-Loup and Private Employment: From Discrimination to Social Cohesion," and Chapter 7, "'Veiled' Mothers and School Outings: Extending the Republican Social Norm," examine the consolidation and consequences of the transformed republican-ideological core: the prioritizing of the "common good" (intérêt public) over individual rights and freedoms. These chapters shed light on how political and legal actors applied the transformed republican ethos to new spheres and new groups of people. In doing so, they contributed to the emergence and entrenchment of a new discourse on social cohesion – one permeated by the requirement of individual religious neutrality and dependent on the exclusion of headscarf-wearing Muslim women from a variety of public spaces.