- Iqbal Masih
Iqbal Masih (
Urdu : اقبال مسیح) (b.1982 -April 16 ,1995 ), was aPakistan i boy who was sold to a carpet industry as a child slave at the age of 4 for the equivalent of (12) USD.Iqbal was held by a string to a carpet loom in a small town called
Muridke nearLahore . He was made to work twelve 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 boy. At the age of 10, he escaped the brutal slavery and later joined a Bonded Labor Liberation Front of Pakistan to help stop child labour around the world, and Iqbal helped over 3,000 Pakistani children that were in bonded labour, escape to freedom. Iqbal gave talks about child labour all around 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 labour industry. Some locals were accused of the crime, however.In 1994, Iqbal was awarded the
Reebok Human Rights Award . In 2000, whenThe 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 a 12 year old Canadian boy,
Craig Kielburger to devote his life to Iqbal's cause and organizeFree 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".
External links
* [http://childrensworld.org/globalclassroom/page.html?pid=53"All about Iqbal Masih's life and struggle at World's Children's Prize for the Right of the Child"] —
* [http://www.mirrorimage.com/iqbal/who/who.html "A Bullet Can't Kill a Dream"] —unt 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 near Lahore
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