Carpets from Pakistan

Iqbal Masih was one of an estimated six million child workers under 14 years of age in Pakistan. Three million of these children are in carpet factories, chained to their looms, working 12 hours a day, knotting carpets. Iqbal knotted carpets from age 4 to 10, until 1993, when he was freed from bondage by the Bonded Labor Liberation Front (BLLF), founded by Ehsan Ullah Khan. Iqbal soon became one of the most tireless and effective campaigners in the fight to raise the awareness of the world to the plight of his fellow child-bonded laborers in Pakistan. He paid with his life.

He was gunned down, and his body was left lying outside Police Headquarters in Lahore. Iqbal was killed by the "carpet mafia", who resorted to murdering a small boy to keep light from shining on their dirty world. It is time the government of Pakistan dealt with Iqbal's killers, by investigating his death.

Ehsan Ullah Khan fled Pakistan because of death threats. All he has accomplished is threatened. Without the BLLF, thousands more children will continue to live as slaves in carpet factories. And, the government of Pakistan does nothing.

You can help find Iqbal's killers and aid Ehsan Khan and the Bonded Labor Liberation Front, by writing letters.

write to:

Embassy of Pakistan
2315 Massachusetts Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008

send copies of your letters to:

The President and your Senators and Representative in Congress

And, you can boycott Pakistani carpets until they end the exploitation of children in their carpet industry.

Boycotts page