Raja Masih and Rita hold up a photo of their daughter Arzoo | Fahim Siddiqui/White Star
On the Sunday before Christmas, a historic church in Karachi looks ready to be featured on a ‘happy holidays’ postcard. The church’s stained-glass windows provide the perfect backdrop for the day’s congregational prayers. There’s a little cardboard and cotton ‘snowman’ by the door, and the pillars are covered with Christmas decorations. During the prayers, the socially-distanced and mask-wearing churchgoers pray for those in need, for the wellbeing of their community and their daughters, and even for Pakistan’s president and prime minister.