Iqbal Masih Explained

Iqbal Masih
Native Name:اقبال مسیح
Native Name Lang:pa
Birth Date:1 January 1983
Birth Place:Muridke, Punjab, Pakistan
Death Place:Muridke, Punjab, Pakistan
Death Cause:Assassination
Nationality:Pakistani
Known For:Abolitionism
Awards:Reebok Human Rights Award (1994)
World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child (2000, posthumous)
Tamgha-e-Shujaat by the Government of Pakistan (2022, posthumous).
Organization:Bandhua Mukti Morcha (BMM)

Iqbal Masih (Panjabi; Punjabi: اقبال مسیح; 1 January 1983  - 16 April 1995) was a Pakistani Christian child labourer and activist who campaigned against abusive child labour in Pakistan.

He was assassinated on 16 April 1995. On 23 March 2022 (Pakistan Day), he was posthumously awarded the Tamgha-e-Shujaat by the government of Pakistan.[1] [2]

Family background and bonded labour

Iqbal Masih was born on 1 January 1983 in Muridke, a village outside of Lahore in Punjab, Pakistan, into a poor Catholic Christian family.[3] [4] [5] His parents were Saif Masih, a laborer, and Inayat Bibi, who worked as a house cleaner. The former later abandoned the family leaving Inayat to work and Iqbal's older sisters taking care of him and his siblings.[6]

In 1986, Saif Masih was to marry off one of his sons but he lacked savings and was unable to finance this: banks would not provide loans while government aid programs were few. He took a loan of 600 rupees from a ur |thekedar (carpet factory owner), using the only collateral he had, his children. The loan was to be paid off by four-year-old Iqbal's labor, and included undisclosed interest and expenses, an institution known as ur |peshgi. Due to the illegality of selling children, the transaction was informal, allowing the loaner to add arbitrary expenses to the loan without oversight.[7]

Expenses were to include the cost of a year of training (during which Iqbal would not be paid), tools, food and fines for any mistakes Iqbal was to make. He was paid 1 rupee a day. Due to the high interest rate at which the loan was taken, it stood at 13,000 rupees prior to his escape.[8]

At the carpet maker's, Iqbal was chained to a loom and made to work as much as 14 hours a day. He was fed little and beaten, more than other children because of his attempts at escaping and refusal to work.[9] These conditions stunted his growth; he had the height and weight of a 6-year-old when he was 12.[10]

Explaining the background behind bonded labourers in Pakistan, American professor C. Christine Fair states that "Large numbers of Christians in the Punjab and Sindh, in particular, are trapped in bonded labour or slavery in work like brick kilns and carpet-weaving. Around 80% of brick kiln workers in some areas are Christians working to pay off family debts long since paid in absolute terms, yet who are illiterate and remain powerless to do anything about their circumstances. The plight of Pakistan's bonded labourers came to international attention briefly with the murder of 12-year-old Christian Iqbal Masih in 1995".[11]

Escape and activism

At the age of 10, Iqbal escaped his slavery, after learning that bonded labour had been declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.[12] He escaped and attempted to report his employer Ashad to the police, but the police brought him back to the factory seeking a finder's fee for returning escaped bonded labourers. Iqbal escaped a second time and attended the Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF) school for former child slaves and quickly completed a four-year education in only two years.[13] Iqbal helped over 3,000 Pakistani children that were in bonded labour escape to freedom and made speeches about child labour all over the world.[9]

He expressed a desire to become a lawyer to better equip him to free bonded labourers, and he visited other countries, including Sweden and the United States, to share his story, encouraging others to join the fight to eradicate child slavery.[14]

In 1994 he received the Reebok Human Rights Award in Boston, and in his acceptance speech he said: "I am one of those millions of children who are suffering in Pakistan through bonded labour and child labour, but I am lucky that due to the efforts of Bonded Labour Liberation Front, I go out in freedom I am standing in front of you here today. After my freedom, I joined BLLF School and I am studying in that school now. For us slave children, Ehsan Ullah Khan and BLLF have done the same work that Abraham Lincoln did for the slaves of America. Today, you are free and I am free too."[15]

Death

Iqbal was fatally shot by the "carpet mafia," a gang that killed slaves if they ran away from a carpet factory, while visiting relatives in Muridke on 16 April 1995, Easter Sunday.[5] [16] He was only 12 years old.[17] His funeral was attended by approximately 800 mourners. A protest of 3,000 people, half of whom were younger than 12, took place in Lahore demanding an end to child labor in the week that followed.

His mother said she did not believe her son had been the victim of a plot by the "carpet mafia".[18] However, the BLLF disagreed because Iqbal had received death threats from individuals connected to the Pakistani carpet industry, the most recent of which had been two weeks prior to his death.

Following his death, Pakistani economic elites responded to declining carpet sales by denying that they were using bonded child labour in their factories and by employing the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to brutally harass and arrest activists working for the BLLF. The Pakistani press conducted a smear campaign against the BLLF, arguing that child labourers received high wages and favourable working conditions.

Legacy

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: President confers civil awards on prominent citizens, foreign nationals . 24 March 2022 . The Express Tribune.
  2. Web site: CONFERMENT OF PAKISTAN CIVIL AWARDS . Cabinet Division, Government of Pakistan.
  3. Book: Fair. C. Christine. Gregory. Shaun. Pakistan in National and Regional Change: State and Society in Flux. 8 April 2016. Routledge. en. 9781134924653. 38. The plight of Pakistan's bonded labourers came to international attention briefly with the murder of 12-year-old Christian Iqbal Masih in 1995..
  4. Book: Winter, Jeanette. Tikvah: Children's Book Creators Reflect on Human Rights. 1999. Chronicle Books. en. 9781587170973. 84. Iqbal Masih was born into a poor Christian family in the village of Muridke, in Pakistan.. registration.
  5. Book: World Vision, Volumes 38-39. 1995. World Vision. en. 41. Police harassment and death threats levelled at Kailash Satyarthi, chairman of the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude, have prompted worldwide concern for the Indian activist's safety. But it's too late for Pakistani Christian Iqbal Masih, 12, a former bonded carpet-weaver who traveled the world crusading against child labor and succeeded in shutting down many carpet factories in Pakistan. On Easter Sunday, 1995, he was shot dead in his home village in Muridke. A victim of target killing..
  6. Book: Iqbal Masih and the Crusaders Against Child Slavery . Susan Kuklin . Macmillan Publishers.
  7. Book: Iqbal Masih . Blair Underwood . https://books.google.com/books?id=VMv4t6-2S4UC&pg=PA199 . Global Backlash: Citizen Initiatives for a Just World Economy . Robin Broad . 199 . Rowman & Littlefield . 2002 . 978-0742510340 . Presentation and Acceptance of Reebok Youth in Action Award. 31 May 2013.
  8. Web site: Boy leader of child labour protest is shot dead. 19 April 1995. The Independent.
  9. Web site: Child Labor in Pakistan. The Atlantic. February 1996.
  10. Web site: Archbishop calls for Day Against Child Slavery to be dedicated to memory of Catholic boy. 2021-12-20. Catholic News Agency. en.
  11. Book: . Pakistan in National and Regional Change . 2013 . . 37 . Large numbers of Christians in the Punjab and Sindh, in particular, are trapped in bonded labour or slavery in work like brick kilns and carpet-weaving. Around 80% of brick kiln workers in some areas are Christians working to pay off family debts long since paid in absolute terms, yet who are illiterate and remain powerless to do anything about their circumstances. The plight of Pakistan's bonded labourers came to international attention briefly with the murder of 12-year-old Christian Iqbal Masih in 1995. Having escaped slavery, Iqbal campaigned against bonded labour and was killed to silence him..
  12. Book: Child Labor: A World History Companion. ABC-CLIO. 978-0874369564. 153–154. Sandy Hobbs. Jim McKechnie. Michael Lavalette. 1 October 1999.
  13. Web site: Kile. J.. Iqbal Masih moralheroes.org. 2021-07-15. en-US.
  14. Web site: Iqbal Masih Pakistan's Forgotten Hero. Wilson. Chowdhry. 2016-03-31. 2019-04-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20190402195000/https://www.britishpakistanichristians.org/blog/iqbal-masih-pakistans-unsung-hero. dead.
  15. Web site: Human Rights Youth in Action Award. 2016-02-01. 2016-03-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20160310121442/https://activefolklore.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/masih-presentation-of-reebok-award.pdf. dead.
  16. Web site: Iqbal Masih's Heart-Rending Tragedy. 19 January 2016. pangaea.org.
  17. News: At Age 12, A Prominent Activist Is Gunned Down . Associated Press . 18 April 1995.
  18. Web site: Plot Discounted in Death of Pakistani Boy. 21 April 1995.
  19. Web site: Iqbal and Craig: Two children against child labour. 19 January 2016. 19 January 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160201093909/http://newint.org/easier-english/child_labour/iqbal.html. 1 February 2016. dead.
  20. Web site: Iqbal Masih Shaheed Children Foundation. 19 January 2016. 19 January 2016. 1 August 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150801125343/http://imscf.org/. dead.
  21. Web site: Broad Meadows Middle School, Paragraph 5. 19 January 2016.
  22. Web site: Iqbal. Francesco D'Adamo. 19 January 2016.
  23. Web site: Iqbal Masih, Child Hero. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211222/cW15xzLt2VI . 2021-12-22 . live. GoodWeave. 18 March 2013. YouTube.
  24. Web site: Movimiento Cultural Cristiano – Web Oficial. www.movimientoculturalcristiano.org.
  25. Web site: 16 April campaign. International day against child slavery. solidaridad.net.
  26. Web site: Iqbal Masih - Storia. www.iqbalmasihtrieste.it. 2016-05-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20161214090120/http://www.iqbalmasihtrieste.it/storia.htm. 2016-12-14. dead.
  27. Book: The Little Hero: One Boy's Fight for Freedom - Iqbal Masih's Story. 2006. Andrew. Crofts. Vision . 9781904132844.
  28. Web site: Iqbal Masih Award. 19 January 2016.
  29. http://www.saingalicia.blogspot.com.es/2012/02/iqbal-masih-ya-tiene-plaza-en-santiago.html Plaza Iqbal Masih
  30. Web site: The Nobel Peace Prize 2014 . Nobelprize.org . February 11, 2016.
  31. Web site: "Let Us March!" Nobel Lecture by Kailash Satyarthi, Oslo, 10 December 2014. . Nobelprize.org . February 11, 2016 . I give the biggest credit of this honour to my movement's Kaalu Kumar, Dhoom Das and Adarsh Kishore from India and Iqbal Masih from Pakistan who made the supreme sacrifice for protecting the freedom and dignity of children. I humbly accept this award on behalf of all such martyrs, my fellow activists across the world and my countrymen..
  32. Web site: X Torneo "Coppa Iqbal Masih" 23/24 aprile 2016. Ufficio. Stampa. sicilia.federugby.it.
  33. Web site: Colegio Oficial de Graduados Sociales de Salamanca. www.graduadosocialsalamanca.es.
  34. News: SOC Films releases part two of Shattering the Silence . The News International . 30 May 2019.
  35. News: Late Catholic activist wins Pakistan's highest bravery award . UCA News . 25 March 2022.

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