This thesis is an attempt to research the effects of discrimination and how individuals perceive discrimination. This paper is based on ten different people’s experiences of discrimination in the workforce. The purpose of this study is, as previously mentioned, to examine the outcomes of discrimination, but also how discrimination can be minimized. This work is based on qualitative method. Therefore, qualitative interviews will be the method for this study. For this purpose, semi-structured interviews have been used and applied to this study. This essay has concluded that the programs that the state uses are not working in these cases. The result from this study is that discrimination has an effect on individual’s relationships at work. This study concluded that discrimination has a lot of outcomes and can occur based on several varied factors. The results of this study indicate that the states' programs against discrimination are not working in these ten separate cases.

Previous research has indicated that outcomes of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation could stem from religious discrimination (RLGD). However, there remains an important gap in the current literature regarding RLGD impacts with non-Muslim populations. Further, the moderating effects of sex, race, and national origin (moderating variables [MVs]) have yielded mixed findings concerning anxiety (dependent variable). The intergroup anxiety theory and the integrated threat theory elaborate on perceived threats and potential anxiety of intergroup dynamics. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the role of religious preferences (independent variable), the MVs, and the RLGD-anxiety relationship. The sample consisted of foreign- and nonforeign-born, Christian theist, non-Christian theist, and nontheist participants from 44 countries and 6 racial groups (N = 414). The direct impact of RLGD through religious intergroup contact (Outgroup Contact Measure) and anxiety (Beck Anxiety Inventory) was measured via regression analyses. While controlling for the MV's, results show that (a) Muslims reported the most religious outgroup contact, whereas, Evangelical/ Fundamentalists reported the least. The (b) most severe differences and the highest and (c) anxiety symptoms were reported by agnostics, atheists, and Muslim women respectively. Findings from this research help clarify that the relationship between RLGD, sex, and anxiety, and show the variation among IV and sex moderations are more unique than initially addressed with Muslims. This is an important contribution to the existing literature and enhances social change by better serving understudied and underrepresented religious preference groups.

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.

The South African Constitution provides a comprehensive list of rights, many of which are important, directly or indirectly, to meet the needs of religious minorities in the country. However, due to South Africa being a secular state and also having particular needs, many workplaces tend to adopt this approach which leads to a conflict between Muslims' religious obligations and the rules of the workplace. As a result, Muslim employees may perceive that their employers are religiously discriminating against them. Muslim women may face more discrimination than Muslim men as their stigma is less concealable due to their modest dressing and the hijab (religious identity marker). Surprisingly, there has been an increase in cases of religious discrimination against Muslim women. To elucidate, these Muslim women employees were asked to remove their hijab on their job as it somewhat violated the company policies. Therefore, presenting a challenge for Muslim women as their religious identity is part of their self-concept and they are required to follow their religious obligations. Informed by theories such as Social Identity Theory and Intergroup Threat Theory, the present study utilised a cross-sectional design to examine the role of Muslim identity in perceived religious discrimination in the workplace. To gain insight about the hijab in various contexts, the current study also examined the comfortability of wearing the hijab in different contexts. The participants were 75 Muslim women living and working in organisations in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The findings of this research indicate that the dimensions of Muslim identity are not significant predictors of perceived religious discrimination; however, psychological identity can lead Muslim women to perceive less or no discrimination. Furthermore, the ANOVA showed that Muslim women did not feel significantly more comfortable wearing the hijab in certain contexts. This study offered implications for both research and practice and made significant recommendations for future research.

Submitted in compliance with the requirements for the Doctor’s Degree in Language Practice, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / Even after political liberation in South Africa, a mismatch exists between the principles of freedom of religious observance taught in Religion Education and the actual religious observances in public schools. Anglican hymns, prayers and observances are still being used in schools where the religious ethos has changed from one of Christianity to include Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, as well as Shembe and Zionist religions. The Draft Policy on Religion Education stipulates that there should be a distinction between home religions and the school’s official religious instruction. School religious observances, particularly observances which reflect the oppressive nature of past colonial impositions, should not give offence to learners from other religious denominations, or belittle their own practices. This thesis investigates the hegemonic influence of colonial religious observances and their possible effect on school populations. Within a critical linguistic approach, which explores the ways in which language both sets in place and reflects the relations of power implicit in social functioning, a critical discourse analysis was carried out on current and topical media texts reporting on contentious issues involving religious observances in schools. Community members were also consulted by means of surveys and interviews so as to provide an overview of the social context of the wider community within which the schools were situated. The resulting data could then be used to triangulate data obtained from the discourse analysis, and either confirm, modify or challenge the latter. The results suggest that, not only is there a strong hegemonic influence present in schools, as a result of the lingering vestiges of traditional colonial Christianity, but that modern Christian movements are also beginning to exert a persuasive influence on non-Christian populations. The issue of religious observance in schools is a highly complex and potentially controversial issue, but one which merits study in view of the fact that the stakeholders’ right to freedom of religious observance may be violated on a daily basis. / D

This research explores how women who wear the veil face discrimination and everyday racism in society. The purpose of the study is to investigate how veiled health care workers experience discrimination and everyday racism in health care from colleagues and patients. By studying women's vulnerability, it is possible to gain a better understanding of what veiled women go through. The veiled women meet new patients and colleagues every day. Every day is a new challenge for them. These women have to endure racist and discriminatory comments from patients and colleagues on a daily basis, which results in them being affected in their work. I interviewed four veiled healthcare professionals who were willing to share their personal experiences with discrimination and everyday racism. The results showed that the women used humor to deal with racism and all respondents suffered from anxiety and pressure when dealing with patients and colleagues. The respondents felt subordinated and excluded. They experienced ethnic discrimination and religious discrimination. The patients and colleagues could express hostility towards the veil and assume that the women were oppressed because they wore the veil.

No Rio Grande do Sul, a criação de leis que tentam coibir a prática dos cultos afros por políticos evangélicos somada a visão preconceituosa da população em geral de que estas religiões são atrasadas e possuem rituais maléficos, suscitaram a reação dos adeptos desses cultos que passaram a lutar pela garantia ao direito da liberdade religiosa e contra o estigma de que as religiões afros são cruéis e prejudiciais. A presente dissertação tem como objetivo estudar de que forma os adeptos das religiões afro-brasileiras em Porto Alegre, conhecidos como batuqueiros, legitimam sua religião para defendê-la dos ataques evangélicos e também amenizar alguns conflitos entre prática religiosa afro-brasileira e sociedade em geral. No entanto, a visão de que o culto está se deturpando nos dias atuais também faz com seus adeptos lutem pelo que consideram a autêntica forma de culto, em contraste com as inovações rituais criadas pelas novas gerações de batuqueiros. Essas duas lutas inserem os batuqueiros na esfera pública porto alegrense a partir da visão do que são as religiões afros para eles: a herança africana que carregam consigo e que são responsáveis por preservar e dar continuidade, modelando seus discursos e práticas para além da esfera habitual dos terreiros. É a partir desse argumento, para dentro e para fora, que os adeptos das religiões afros vão legitimar sua prática religiosa perante eles mesmos e a sociedade em geral, lutando a favor do direito à liberdade religiosa. / In Rio Grande do Sul, the creation of laws to repress the practice of afro cults by evangelic politicians along with the based vision of the population that sees these religions as backward and as having malefic rites, gave rise to reactions from the followers of these cults who struggled for the freedom of religion and against the stigma of cruelty and prejudice that is said to come from the afro-religions. The objective of this dissertation is to study in which way the followers of the Afro- Brazilian religions in Porto Alegre, known as batuqueiros, legitimize their religion to defend it against attacks from evangelicals and to harmonize some conflicts between the Afro- Brazilian religious practice and the society. However, the vision that today the cult is misrepresenting itself obliges its followers to struggle for what they understand is the authentic form of the cult, in contrast with innovations in the ritual, created by the new generations of batuqueiros. These two struggles place the batuqueiros in the public sphere of Porto Alegre from the point of view of what are the afro religions for them: the African inheritance that they carry with themselves and that they are responsible for preserving and continue. This models their discourses and practices beyond the customary sphere of the terreiros. it is from this argument, directed to the inside and to the outside, that the followers of the Afro- religions will legitimize their religious practice to themselves and to the society, struggling for the freedom of religion.

<p> </p><p>In this thesis I will discuss two different ethical approaches to the Peruvian state treatment in favour of the Catholic Church, for and against, based respectively on communitarian and secularist views on the state-Church relationship which I will also discuss. After that I will offer concepts of several types of discrimination and I will connect them to the question if the Peruvian state treatment in favour of the Catholic Church is a kind of discrimination against non-Catholic minorities-believers and non-believers. Finally, I will summarize the thesis and make some general conclusions.</p> / D

In this thesis I will discuss two different ethical approaches to the Peruvian state treatment in favour of the Catholic Church, for and against, based respectively on communitarian and secularist views on the state-Church relationship which I will also discuss. After that I will offer concepts of several types of discrimination and I will connect them to the question if the Peruvian state treatment in favour of the Catholic Church is a kind of discrimination against non-Catholic minorities-believers and non-believers. Finally, I will summarize the thesis and make some general conclusions. / D

No Rio Grande do Sul, a criação de leis que tentam coibir a prática dos cultos afros por políticos evangélicos somada a visão preconceituosa da população em geral de que estas religiões são atrasadas e possuem rituais maléficos, suscitaram a reação dos adeptos desses cultos que passaram a lutar pela garantia ao direito da liberdade religiosa e contra o estigma de que as religiões afros são cruéis e prejudiciais. A presente dissertação tem como objetivo estudar de que forma os adeptos das religiões afro-brasileiras em Porto Alegre, conhecidos como batuqueiros, legitimam sua religião para defendê-la dos ataques evangélicos e também amenizar alguns conflitos entre prática religiosa afro-brasileira e sociedade em geral. No entanto, a visão de que o culto está se deturpando nos dias atuais também faz com seus adeptos lutem pelo que consideram a autêntica forma de culto, em contraste com as inovações rituais criadas pelas novas gerações de batuqueiros. Essas duas lutas inserem os batuqueiros na esfera pública porto alegrense a partir da visão do que são as religiões afros para eles: a herança africana que carregam consigo e que são responsáveis por preservar e dar continuidade, modelando seus discursos e práticas para além da esfera habitual dos terreiros. É a partir desse argumento, para dentro e para fora, que os adeptos das religiões afros vão legitimar sua prática religiosa perante eles mesmos e a sociedade em geral, lutando a favor do direito à liberdade religiosa. / In Rio Grande do Sul, the creation of laws to repress the practice of afro cults by evangelic politicians along with the based vision of the population that sees these religions as backward and as having malefic rites, gave rise to reactions from the followers of these cults who struggled for the freedom of religion and against the stigma of cruelty and prejudice that is said to come from the afro-religions. The objective of this dissertation is to study in which way the followers of the Afro- Brazilian religions in Porto Alegre, known as batuqueiros, legitimize their religion to defend it against attacks from evangelicals and to harmonize some conflicts between the Afro- Brazilian religious practice and the society. However, the vision that today the cult is misrepresenting itself obliges its followers to struggle for what they understand is the authentic form of the cult, in contrast with innovations in the ritual, created by the new generations of batuqueiros. These two struggles place the batuqueiros in the public sphere of Porto Alegre from the point of view of what are the afro religions for them: the African inheritance that they carry with themselves and that they are responsible for preserving and continue. This models their discourses and practices beyond the customary sphere of the terreiros. it is from this argument, directed to the inside and to the outside, that the followers of the Afro- religions will legitimize their religious practice to themselves and to the society, struggling for the freedom of religion.