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This chapter assesses the experiences of Pakistani female diaspora in Australia with reference to its participation in the labour market. The assessment is located within the context of literature on Muslim women in the workplace in general and Pakistan in particular and outlines the kind of challenges faced by them. Using interviews with a selected sample of Australian women of Pakistani background living in Western Australia, it argues that not all experience similar challenges to the ones faced in Pakistan. Rather a diversity of experiences and challenges, including with reference to the current environment marked by increasing Islamophobia, manifests itself in their responses. At the same time, the women assume agency in responding to their social and workplace environment, and explore ways of shifting perceptions of Islam and Muslims. They also use their experiences in the Australian workplace to suggest pathways to improve the status of working women in Pakistan.

This chapter argues that China's Kashmir policy is part of its overall South Asia policy which is part of China's counter-encirclement strategy. As Beijing's perceptions of, and responses to, the threat along its borders has altered, so has its South Asia policy and its stand on the Kashmir dispute. Despite a change in its position on the Kashmir issue, Beijing was initially reluctant to endorse Pakistan's adventurist policies in Kashmir. Hence, as Pakistan's President Ayub Khan embarked on his adventurist policies in the Indian part of Kashmir, Chinese leaders and media cautiously avoided giving any impression that they would favor a conflict in the princely state. As the moderates gained ascendancy in China in the late 1960s, Beijing changed its South Asia policy. The souring of Sino-Soviet and Sino-Indian relations in the late 1950s and a fear of joint Soviet-American encirclement of China triggered a change in even-handed policy.