Escape From Slavery

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2017

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The story of a Pakistani boy, Iqbal Masih, who was forced into bonded labour as a carpet weaver at the age of four. He later escaped and began speaking out against child labour. He became an international campaigner for the rights of children, speaking at schools in the US and Europe. Iqbal was tragically killed in 1995 at the age of 12. Farhana Haider has been talking to Ehsan Ullah Khan, whose organisation helped free Iqbal.

Photo: Ehsan Ullah Khan and Iqbal Masih in Sweden, 1995. (Credit: Ehsan Ullah Khan)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC
0:35.4	Sounds.
0:36.4	Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness Podcast, history is told by the people who are there.
0:41.8	And today we head back to Pakistan in the
0:43.9	1990s and the dramatic journey of one little boy from child slavery to
0:49.4	international campaigner. Iqbal Masi was sold into bonded labor as a carpet weaver at the age of four,
0:58.0	but later escaped and became a leading voice in the fight for the rights of children.
1:04.0	I've been speaking to Aesan Ula Khan,
1:07.0	whose organization helped free Igbal.
1:10.0	It's September 1992. A meeting is being held in Shekapura in northwest Pakistan, organized by a group called
1:21.6	the Bonded Labor Liberation Front, or BLLF,
1:25.0	which campaigns for the eradication of bonded labor in South Asia.
1:29.0	Earlier that year, the Pakistani government had banned bonded labor, but the law wasn't being enforced.
1:35.5	Esenol Khan was the BLLF's founder.
1:38.6	I saw one small child coming towards the meeting. This child I read his face and I felt that he he
1:46.7	want to say something but he don't have a courage. That child was Igba Massey, a
1:52.0	slight 10-year-old boy who was barely 4 feet tall.
	...

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