Iqbal Masih

Iqbal Masih (Urdu: اقبال مسیح) (b. 1982 - April 16, 1995), was a young Pakistani Christian boy who was forced into bonded labour in a carpet factory at the age of four, became an international figurehead for the Bonded Labour Liberation Front at the age of 10 after he escape from servitude, and was murdered with a shotgun at the age of 12.

Early life and labour

Iqbal Masih was born in 1983,Muridke, a very small, rural village outside of Lahore in Pakistan. Shortly after Iqbal's birth, his father, Saif Masih, abandoned the family. Iqbal's mother, Inayat, worked as a housecleaner, but found it difficult to make enough money to feed all her children from her small income.

Escape and activism

At the age of 10, he escaped brutal slavery and later joined the BLLF (Bonded Labor Liberation Front of Pakistan) to help stop child labor around the world. Iqbal helped over 3,000 Pakistani children that were in bonded labour escape to freedom, and made speeches about child labour all around the world. Iqbal's story later became a book.

Legacy

In January 2009, the United States Congress established the annual Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor.

Iqbal visited Broad Meadows Middle School in Quincy, Massachusetts and spoke to 7th graders about his life. When the students learned of his death, they decided to raise money and built a school in his honor in Pakistan.

Iqbal's work and subsequent death inspired a 12 year old Canadian boy; Craig Kielburger to devote his life to Iqbal's cause and organize Free The Children.

External links

• "Who Was Iqbal Masih?" mirrorimage.com. accessed October 3, 2011.
• Gannon, Kathy (31 May 1995). "LA Times on Iqbal Masih". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1995-05-31/business/fi-8016_1_child-labor. Retrieved October 27 2011.