Iqbal Masih

Iqbal Masih (Urdu: اقبال مسیح‎; 1983 - 16 April 1995) was a Pakistani child who became a symbol of abusive child labour in the developing world.

Childhood

Iqbal Masih was born in 1983 in Muridke, a commercial city outside of Lahore in Punjab, Pakistan. At age four, he was sold into bondage by his family.^[1] Iqbal's family borrowed 600 rupees (less than $6.00) from a local employer who owned a carpet weaving business. In return, Iqbal was required to work as a carpet weaver until the debt was paid off. Every day, he would rise before dawn and make his way along dark country roads to the factory, where he and most of the other children were tightly bound with chains to prevent escape. He would work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with only a 30-minute break, paid 3 cents a day for the loan, but no matter what Iqbal did the loan just got bigger and bigger. Iqbal stood less than 4 feet tall and weighed only 20kg.

Escape and activism

At the age of 10, Iqbal escaped his slavery, after learning that bonded labour was declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.^[2] He was caught by police brought back to Arshad, who told the police to tie him upside down if he tried to escape again. Iqbal escaped a second time and he attended the Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF) School for former child slaves and quickly completed a four-year education in only two years.^[3] Iqbal helped over 3,000 Pakistani children that were in bonded labour to escape to freedom and made speeches about child labour throughout the world.

When Ehsan met Iqbal the boy was shy and afraid, but Khan realized he had many things to say.

He expressed a desire to become a lawyer to better equip him to free bonded labourers, and he began to visit other countries including Sweden and the United States to share his story, encouraging others to join the fight to eradicate child slavery.^[4]

In 1994 he received the Reebok Human Rights Award in Boston and in his acceptance speech he said: "I am one of those millions of children who are suffering in Pakistan through bonded labour and child labour, but I am lucky that due to the efforts of Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF), I go out in freedom I am standing in front of you here today. After my freedom, I join BLLF School and I am studying in that school now. For us slave children Ehsan Ullah Khan and BLLF have done the same work that Abraham Lincoln did for the slaves of America. Today, you are free and I am free too."^[5]

Death

Iqbal was fatally shot in Muridke, Pakistan on 16 April 1995,^[6] shortly after returning from a trip to the U.S. He was 12 years old at the time. Some say that he was shot by a farmer, some say that he was murdered because of his influence over bonded labour. His funeral was attended by approximately 800 mourners. The Little Hero: One Boy's Fight for Freedom^[7] tells the story of his legacy.

Legacy

Ehsan Ullah Khan visits the Iqbal Masih Square in Santiago de Compostela.

• Iqbal's cause inspired the creation of organizations such as Free The Children,^[8] a Canada-based charity and youth movement, and the Iqbal Masih Shaheed Children Foundation,^[9] which has started over 20 schools in Pakistan.
• In 1994, Iqbal visited Broad Meadows Middle School in Quincy, Massachusetts,^[10] and spoke to 7th graders about his life. When the students learned of his death, they decided to raise money and build a school in his honor in Kasur, Pakistan.
• Iqbal's story was depicted in a book entitled Iqbal by Francesco D'Adamo,^[11] a fictional story based on true events, from the point of view of a girl named Fatima.
• In 1994 he got the Reebok Youth in Action Award.^[12]
• In 1996 the Movimiento Cultural Cristiano ^[13] (MCC- Christian Cultural Movement) and Camino Juvenil Solidario (CJS- Youth Solidarity Path) promoted the 16 of April as International Day against Child Slavery in Spain and South America ^[14]
• In 1998 the newly formed Istituto Comprensivo Iqbal Masih, a comprehensive education institute comprising several schools in Trieste, Italy, was named after him.^[15]
• In 2000 he received a posthumous World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child and the Piazzale dei Traghetti Iqbal Masih was inaugurated in Genoa, Italy.
• In 2009 the United States Congress established the annual Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor.^[16]
• On 16 April 2012, the Council of Santiago, after a proposal of Movimiento Cultural Cristiano, inaugurates a Square named after Iqbal in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.^[17]
• The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to children's rights advocate Kailash Satyarthi^[18] on grounds of prevention of child labour and female education. Satyarthi mentioned Masih in his Nobel Peace Prize award speech, dedicating it to him and other "martyrs".^[19]

Iqbal a courageous boy from Pakistan by Jeanette Winter

• In 2016 "X Iqbal Masih Rugby Tournament" in Catania, Sicily.^[20]

References

External links

• "Who Was Iqbal Masih?" mirrorimage.com.
• Gannon, Kathy (May 31, 1995). "Young Activist's Death Hits Pakistani Carpet Sales". Los Angeles Times. 
• Iqbal Masih solidaridad.net

Further reading

• Andrew Crofts (15 June 2006). The Little Hero: One Boy's Fight for Freedom: Iqbal Masih's Story. Summersdale Publishers LTD - ROW. ISBN 978-1-84839-492-6. 
• Susan Kuklin (15 October 1998). Iqbal Masih and the Crusaders Against Child Slavery. Henry Holt and Company (BYR). ISBN 978-0-8050-5459-0.