Iqbal Masih
Pakistani child sold into bonded labour at four who became a symbol against child slavery
Iqbal Masih was born into a poor Christian family in a village in Punjab, Pakistan, and was around four years old when his parents borrowed the equivalent of a few dollars for a wedding and pledged his labour to a carpet factory owner to repay it. He spent years tied to a loom for up to twelve hours a day, his debt growing rather than shrinking under a system of compounding interest and fines that bonded labourers had almost no way to escape.
At around ten he attended a rally held by the Bonded Labour Liberation Front and, encouraged by what he heard, ran away and reported the factory to the police. He became a spokesperson for the organisation, describing conditions in the carpet industry to journalists and audiences abroad and helping identify other children still working in bonded labour, work credited with contributing to the freeing of thousands of children and pressure that led Pakistan to strengthen its laws against the practice.
In 1994 he travelled to the United States, met labour activists and was given a human rights award, and enrolled in school for the first time, hoping to become a lawyer.
In April 1995, at the age of twelve, he was shot dead while cycling in his home village. Pakistani police called it a stray bullet during a family dispute, but many activists believed he was killed over the industry's carpet exports, a claim never proven in court.