This website is dedicated to & salutes the work of
Iqbal Masih, a 12-year-old boy who was an ex-child carpet weaver turned a young activist,
who was campaigning against the exploitation of child labour in Pakistan. He was murdered
on April 16, 1995 in his native
village.
Iqbal Masih was four years old when his father sold him into slavery. He was forced to work
more than twelve hours a day. He was constantly beaten, verbally abused, and chained to his
loom by the carpet factory owner.
On December 2, 1994, when Iqbal visited the Broad Meadows Middle School (U.S.A), he looked
much younger than his twelve years: his growth had been stunted by severe malnutrition and
years of cramped immobility in front of a loom.
There are an estimated 20 million bonded laborers in Pakistan today; at least 7.5 million of
these bonded laborers are children. More than 500,000 children, like Iqbal, work in the
carpet industry. Because carpet factory owners, usually rich and influential men in their
communities, are often under the protection of the local police, laws against enslaving
children are seldom enforced.
In 1992 Iqbal's life changed dramatically. He and some other children stole away from their
carpet factory to attend a freedom day celebration held by the Bonded Labour Liberation
Front (BLLF). At the gathering they learned about their rights. Iqbal was moved to give
an impromptu and eloquent speech about his sufferings which was printed in the local
papers. Afterwards he refused to return to his owner. On his own initiative, he contacted
a BLLF lawyer and obtained a letter of freedom which he presented to his former master.
Iqbal was an articulate, confident, and powerful speaker and an uncompromising critic of
child servitude. Iqbal's words of encouragement to other children and his willingness to
speak out against child slavery had helped free many other illegally bonded children. At
the time of his death, he was enrolled in a school for freed bonded children, where he was
a bright and energetic student. His dream for the future was to become a lawyer. That way,
he reasoned, he could continue to fight for freedom on behalf of Pakistan's seven and a half
million illegally enslaved children.
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Iqbal was sold into Child bonded labor at 4 years of age for the equivalent
of $12
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He escaped at age 10 and began to speak out against child slavery and
for freedom and schools for all Pakistani children.
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Iqbal won the Reebok Human Rights Youth in Action Award 1994
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Sunday April 16, 1995, he was murdered.
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In response, students at Broadmeadow Middle School formed this campaign
in order to help fight for Iqbal's Dream
School for Iqbal Masih Fund - Students at Broadmeadow Middle School formed this campaign
in order to help fight for Iqbal's Dream
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