Who is Iqbal?

   Iqbal Masih is also a teen activist who stood up for what he believed. Iqbal loved school and he wanted an education but ever since he was four years old he had been working on making carpets. The reason why he had been working on carpets was because his father sold him to the carpet industries for $12 to pay off a debt. Iqbal worked for 12 hours every day and he was chained to his loom and there were hardly ever any breaks. Iqbal worked on carpets from age four to ten. He is a bonded worker and a slave. A bonded worker is someone who has been bought and cannot be free unless they could buy their own freedom. Iqbal never made enough money to buy his own freedom. But at age ten he escaped the carpet industries and started on his journey to end child labor.

Iqbal starts fighting

   When Iqbal first started speaking out not only did almost everyone in Pakistan listen to him, people all over the world listened to him. Iqbal went to Sweden and the U.S to denounce child labor and in 1994 Iqbal went to North America where he went to Broad Meadows Middle School in Massachusetts where he told the students there about his experiences with child labor and in general about child labor. When he was done telling the students about child labor he wanted to go back home to Pakistan. The students asked him why he wanted to go back when he knew it might be dangerous with his publicity. Do you knew what he said? He said "I want to go back to finish what I started."

Iqbal's death

    And a few months after returning to Pakistan Iqbal was shot and murdered  while riding his bike with his friends. Iqbal's cousin was also wounded in the shoot, he claimed Iqbal was shot by a farmer. So there is no proof that Iqbal was murdered by the carpet company who wanted to silence him for speaking out. And also everyone in Iqbal's village said a farmer shot him. Later the farmer was arrested.

    After Iqbal's death

   Even though there was no proof that the carpet industries killed Iqbal, after Iqbal's death, people stopped buying the carpets from the industry where he worked. The carpet industry never had so little buyers. The carpets that seemed so beautiful now seemed like they were made with children's blood on them.  

 

 

 

Did you know?

Hand-knotted carpets are also made in Afghanistan, China, Iran, Morocco, Peru and Turkey.

 

 

Did you know?

In dirt-poor villages where there are not enough schools, children are sent to find work every day. Some are sent to find work mills, brickyards, and garages before their 10th birthday. 

 

 

Did you know?

In Kenya even though kids under 16 are not allowed to work it excludes agriculture.

 

 

Did you know?

The reason why there are children carpet-makers is because of their tiny fingers, their tiny fingers make small, tight knots.