Iqbal Masih

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Iqbal Masih (Urdu: اقبال مسیح) (b. 1982 - April 16, 1995),was a Pakistani boy who was sold to a carpet industry as a child slave) at the age of 4 for the equivalent of (12) USD. Iqbal has also been referred to as Iqbal Masih, which is far less common.

Iqbal was held by a chain to a carpet loom in a small town called Muridke near Lahore. He was made to work sixteen hours per day. Due to long hours of hard work and insufficient food and care, Iqbal was undersized. At twelve years of age, Iqbal was the size of a six-year old. At the age of 10, he escaped the slavery and later joined a Bonded Labour Liberation Front to help stop child labour around the world, and Iqbal helped over 3,000 Pakistan children that were in bonded labour, escape to freedom. Iqbal gave talks about child labour all round the world. He was murdered on Easter Sunday 1995. It is assumed by many that he was assassinated by members of the "carpet mafia" because of the publicity he brought towards the child labor industry. Some locals were accused of the crime, however. Five years later, when The World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child was formed, he was posthumously awarded this prize as one of the first laureates.

Masih's work and subsequent death inspired the then 12 year old Canadian boy, Craig Kielburger to devote his life to the boy's cause and organized Free the Children.

Francesco D'Adamo wrote an Italian children's book about Iqbal's story, from the point of view of Fatima, a child who worked with him at the carpet factory. The book has been translated into English and it is called "Iqbal".

[edit] Sources

Gay, Kathlyn and Martin K. Gay. Heroes of Conscience: A Biographical Dictionary. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO inc. , 1996

D'Adamo, Francesco. Iqbal: A Novel. Trans. Ann Leonori. New York: Aladdin Books, 2003 sold for 26$

[edit] External link

• A Bullet Can't Kill a Dream — an account of the story of Iqbal Masih from an American point of view

Persondata
NAME	Masih, Iqbal
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	former child slave, activist against child labour and bonded labour
DATE OF BIRTH	1982
PLACE OF BIRTH	Muridke, Punjab, Pakistan
DATE OF DEATH	16 April 1995
PLACE OF DEATH	Muridke