World Cultures: School for Enslaved Children in Pakistan Named After Boy Martyr Who Rescued Thousands From Bonded Labor

Imagine being 5 years old and sold for less than $7 into child slavery. Instead of starting school like most children that age, you must work at a carpet factory for long hours and not much food. This was the life of Iqbal Masih, just 4 years old when he was forced into bonded labor after his mother couldn't pay off a loan she took out to pay for her older son's wedding. Masih worked 14 hour days for six days a week, but was never even close to paying off his mom's loan. 

Iqbal escaped at the age of 10 with friends and went to the police with plenty of evidence that they were abused and beaten. The police, however, returned Masih and his friends to the master for payment. Masih was later helped out and received a formal education. Masih began speaking out against abuses and injustice of bonded labor and went to factories to encourage other children to leave because new laws banned bonded labor and other forms of slavery.

Masih also spoke out against bonded labor in other countries throughout the world. He even gave a speech to the United Nations General Assembly when he was just 12 years old. Sadly, he was shot and killed just weeks before he was to begin studying for a law degree at Brandeis University in Boston in 1995.

School for Enslaved Children in Pakistan Named After Boy Martyr Who Rescued Thousands From Bonded Labor

Iqbal was such a huge inspiration to children around the world that a new school will soon be named in his honor. A human rights charity will open a free primary school in a poor area of Pakistan that aims to give children an education instead of working as bonded laborers and a chance to break free from their family's cycle of poverty. 

"We chose to name our school after Tim Iqbal Masih as his short life has been an inspiration to our group. His commitment to save others and in so doing sacrificing his own life is a message to us all," BPCA Chairman Wilson Chowdhry said in a statement. "Freedom from oppressors will always come at a cost and so often martyrs are forgotten. We wanted his desire to emancipate other victims to be be remembered, that it might cement a place for acceptance of the beleaguered Christian minority in Pakistan and inspire generations of humanitarians yet to come." (Smith, CP Reporter for CP World.com)

Written by: Gabriel Sanchez