The novel ‘Iqbal’ by Francesco D’ Adamo is loosely based on Iqbal Masih’s real life.
In Pakistan, thousands of children work long, grueling hours in inhumane conditions so that they can pay off the debt their family owes. The carpet factory, where this story is set, houses 20 children who receive one rupee for one day’s work.
The novel is narrated through the voice of Fatima, a girl who works in this carpet factory. Their master, Hussain Khan, oversees their work and, if the work done is sufficient, Khan erases a line of their slate. Each line represents one rupee, and all the lines on the slate are their debt. Hussain Khan is a mean master and terrifies the children No one is willing to stand up to him in fear of abuse and time in ‘the Tomb’. The tomb is a small room with no light, ventilation or rations. This all continues until the day Iqbal arrives.
Iqbal is a brilliant worker. He weaves the most complicated patterns in a short time. Young Iqbal is brave and stands up to Hussain Khan. Iqbal weaves one of the rarest and most beautiful carpets in the world – The blue Bukhara. All the children think that Iqbal lines will be erased because he is making Hussain Khan so much money. However, Iqbal believes that the lines will never be erased. Therefore, on the day that foreign buyers come to the factory, Iqbal purposely cuts the Blue Bukhara to pieces as an act of defiance. He is sentenced to four days in the tomb; regardless, it is a huge loss for Hussain Khan.
Daring Iqbal takes another huge risk; he runs away from the carpet factory. Hussain Khan and his friends search the city for the fugitive but fail to find him.
Meanwhile, Iqbal goes to the market to look for work, when he hears some men from the Bonder Labor Liberation Front of Pakistan speaking about how the Supreme Court has ruled that bonded labor was illegal. Hope sparks up in Iqbal. He grabs a pamphlet that the volunteers are handing out. Iqbal tells a police officer his story, and the officer takes him back to Hussain Khan. They are going to arrest Hussain Khan, when Khan bribes them with money and he is let off. Iqbal is sentenced to 6 days in the tomb. He comes out starved and sunburned, but alive.
Iqbal tells the rest of the children what happened in the city and shows them the flyer. However, none of them know how to read. Then, the children hear a strange voice, one they had never heard before. It turns out that Maria, a girl who they had always thought could never speak, can actually read. Over the course of a year, Maria teaches them how to read, and they can finally read the flyer. Iqbal memorizes the address and, during a large punch up, escapes.
A day later, Iqbal returns with Eshan Khan, the leader of the Bonded Labor Liberation Front of Pakistan and a magistrate. They arrest Hussain Khan, no matter how much he tries to bribe them with. The children are free and are taken to the headquarters of the Liberation Front.
Slowly, all the forced workers return to their families, except Iqbal, Fatima and Maria. They continue to work to stop bonded labor. However, the opposition has grown stronger and many people are throwing bricks and rotten tomatoes at the headquarters.
After a while, Iqbal is told he has won the Reebok “Youth in Action award”. Iqbal is invited to international locations to deliver speeches on child labor and bonded labor.
Soon after, Iqbal Masih is murdered in his village on Easter Sunday. His murderers have never been found.
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