The Little Hero—One Boy's Fight for Freedom: Iqbal Masih's Story

This detailed account of the life and work of Iqbal Masih is an illustration of the plight of children who are enslaved throughout the developing world as well as a compelling biography of a singularly charismatic and intrepid child who used his small voice to tell the stories of those too frightened to speak out. Iqbal Masih was murdered at the age of thirteen, but not before becoming an internationally renowned opponent of child and slave labor. Forced into servitude at a carpet factory in order to pay a family debt, Iqbal, a Pakistani, experienced firsthand the cruelty of an economic system which decimates local communities on one end and spits out consumer products on the other. Mustering the courage to escape the factory, Iqbal found the Bonded Labor Liberation Front and worked to instigate a children's rebellion against companies using child slavery. Rewarding Iqbal for his work, Reebok presented him with the Youth in Action Award in 1995 and offered him a full scholarship to study law at Brandeis University—a scholarship he did not live to accept.