Iqbal Masih was a Pakistani child who went from being chained to a loom to becoming a global voice against child slavery. His story, marked by poverty, struggle, and a murder still surrounded by doubts, symbolizes resistance against injustice and exploitation.

Childhood shattered by slavery

Iqbal Masih was born in 1983 in Muridke, a small town in the Punjab province of Pakistan. His fate was sealed at the age of four, when his father handed him over to a carpet-maker as collateral for a loan to finance his older brother’s wedding.

Like so many other children from impoverished families, he became trapped in a system called peshgi, a form of bonded servitude in which the children worked until they “paid off” a sum that in practice never diminished, because the interest kept growing every month.

Young Iqbal became one of the so-called “old children.” He spent eight to twelve hours a day chained to a loom, inhaling fibers’ dust that damaged his lungs and caused chronic coughing. His food was minimal, his body did not grow at a normal pace, showing signs of rickets and extreme exhaustion. At ten years old, his calloused hands and weakened body seemed those of an adult aged before his time.

The conditions of slavery were devastating: the children could barely move, worked barefoot on dirt floors, and any attempt at rest was punished. According to the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child in Pakistan, at that time at least eight million minors worked in similar conditions, two-thirds of them full-time.

Yet what they could not break was Iqbal Masih’s spirit of resistance. At only ten years old, he found a way out and transformed his pain into denunciation.

Iqbal Masih, the child activist who moved the world

In 1993, during a visit to his family, Iqbal Masih accidentally attended a meeting of the Brick Workers’ Front, who were protesting their working conditions. There, he took the floor and told what he and other children suffered in carpet factories: hunger, chains, diseases, and endless exploitation. His testimony impressed the activists, who integrated him into the Front for the Liberation of Forced Labor. From then on, Iqbal never returned to the factory.

He lived with an uncle to avoid being handed over again by his father and, for the first time, could attend school. He recovered part of his lost childhood and, at the same time, traveled through Pakistan denouncing child slavery. The media baptized him “the child activist,” a nickname that reflected his precocious courage.

Iqbal moved beyond borders. In 1993, he traveled to Stockholm, Sweden, where during an international carpet exhibition he launched a cry that echoed around the world: “Don’t buy carpets, they’re made by children.” In 1994, he flew to the United States, where he received the Reebok Human Rights Award and the promise of a scholarship at Brandeis University. For him, who had never imagined studying in freedom, that was hope for the future.

Iqbal Masih became a global symbol against child slavery, inspiring international campaigns to boycott products made with child labor and pressuring governments and international organizations to act.

His death and the legacy of a martyr

On April 16, 1995, at just twelve years old, Iqbal Masih died from a shotgun blast at Chapa Khana Mill, near his native village. He was riding a bicycle with his cousins when he was shot. The official version blamed a local farmer nicknamed “Hero,” but inconsistencies in statements, irregularities in the autopsy, and the speed with which the police closed the case immediately aroused suspicion. Cerebro Digital

Hypotheses quickly emerged that his death had been a contract killing by the carpet manufacturers’ mafia, who saw in the boy a dangerous enemy capable of mobilizing world public opinion against them. International media such as Le Monde and Liberation denounced the weakness of the official version and suggested a plot to silence him.

In Pakistan, the news sparked massive demonstrations, while around the world human rights organizations remembered him as a martyr. Pakistani justice never thoroughly investigated or clarified the crime. Iqbal Masih’s body was treated with contempt by the authorities, reflecting the indifference of a system accustomed to ignoring the most vulnerable.

Despite the impunity, his memory became a symbol. April 16 was established as World Day Against Child Slavery, in tribute to that boy who, at only twelve, had the courage to face powerful interests and demand freedom for millions of other enslaved children.

The name Iqbal Masih was also immortalized in the Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor, created by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2009. This annual award recognizes individuals, organizations, or institutions that have made extraordinary contributions in the fight against child exploitation worldwide, keeping alive the spirit of resistance and justice that defined Iqbal’s short but intense life.

Iqbal Masih was not only a victim of child labor, but a universal symbol of resistance and hope. His life and death show that even the smallest voice can challenge the giants of exploitation. Remembering him is a constant call to combat child slavery in all its forms.

Reference:

• World’s Children’s Prize/Iqbal Masih. Link
• The Child Labor Coalition/We Remember Iqbal Masih’s Life. Link

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