RedHanded - Iqbal Masih: Enslaved, Empowered, Assassinated | #412

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

Sold into slavery at just four years old, Iqbal Masih’s future was not bright. He was set to be one of the millions of children and adults across Asia trapped in bonded labour. But Iqbal was no ordinary child: he would escape slavery, campaign tirelessly to free fellow children, be recognised on the global stage – and then tragically be assassinated by the “Carpet Mafia” – all before his thirteenth birthday. Here is his unthinkable story.Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Visit learnersfamily.com or give us a call at 1-800-263-5583 today. Hey, I'm Cassie de Peckle, the host of Wondery's podcast Against the Odds. In each episode, we share thrilling true stories of survival, putting you in the shoes of the people who live to tell the tale. This month, we're bringing back a fan favorite season. In 1914, former President Teddy Roosevelt mounts a dangerous expedition to map an unexplored river in the Amazon, known as the river of doubt. He, his son Kermit, and the rest of their team face dangerous rapids, hunger, and even murder from within their ranks. They have no idea how long it will take to reach the end of the river. And as each day passes, the perils of the jungle bring them closer to death. Follow against

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I'm Hannah and welcome to Red-handed, where we've got deja vu. It hasn't happened much. No. But in the last decade of podcasting, we've somehow managed to have the podcast God smile on us. We haven't lost too many recordings. I think we've only ever lost one before this. I'm trying to remember. I remember we re-recorded the Swedish case.

Yes, we did. But I don't know if that was because of sound. No, it's because we were really tired. Oh, yes. Oh, my God, you're so right. We recorded it and we listened back to it and we were like, this is shit. Yes, exactly. We literally are just like, we look, sound like zombies.

We sound like zombies. So you're right, we did. That's how good the quality control here is. And that was in the duvet days. So that was back under the duvet scoliotis central. Absolutely. So, no, this one, it's not so much about quality control. It's because the SD card went walkabout.

And we have searched everywhere. We've turned our office upside down. We've turned our houses upside down. But something that is the size of, you know, half a 5p, it's gone. The only thing that has made me feel better about this is I remembered that he's not there anymore, but one of the producers of QI, who also works on fish. He was like, there is the one time we ever got Stephen Fry on no such thing as a fish. someone lost the SD card and now it just lives on in legend

in the QIHQ of the mythical SD card with the lost Holy Grail episode that nobody will ever hear you know what actually we sometimes in our occasional moments we're like wouldn't it just be easier to do a fucking guested show where you get a bunch of celebrities on

and you let them talk and then the listeners go through the roof because all their listeners listen the one good thing Hannah is that it is just the two of us so if we do lose an SD card like we have done least we know someone famous wasn't on there who we will never ever get to come back into the studio it was just us so we're back again yeah so long live the legend of the last episode

of no such thing as it finished absolutely but you don't have to live wondering about any legendary missing red-handed episodes because we'll just re-record them so let's do that shall we I'll be a bitch about it yeah I'll do it and you know good thing it's not about like horrible child slavery or anything

Oh, wait. Today, nearly 50 million people live in slavery. That's one in every 150 people on this planet. Right now, trapped in forced labor. And roughly a quarter of those are children. The top 10 countries with the highest prevalence of modern slavery at the moment include North Korea, Eritrea, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Afghanistan, and Kuwait.

Now, we're not talking about hidden, underground slavery that nobody knows about. We are talking about state-sponsored systemic industrial slavery. Just take the Khafala system in Saudi Arabia, an extremely wealthy, supposedly modernizing nation. So now imagine what might happen if somebody, speaks out against such a system of slavery that is so deeply rooted, so normalized, so accepted, and so lucrative to powerful people. Now imagine that the person speaking out is a 12-year-old boy. We've all heard of Malala and her bravery in the face of the Taliban,

but how many of us have heard of Iqbal Marcy, if you haven't, or even if you have, this episode is crucial listening. We'll deep dive into the disgusting world of child labour in Pakistan and how this one 12-year-old boy, sold into slavery by his own parents, escaped, fought the system that held him captive, saved tens of thousands of other young children, fought for their rights on the international stage, and as a result ended up being assassinated before he could even become a teenager. According to Pakistani police, the man response for this assassination was just a random farm worker

hopped up on cannabis who accidentally shot a kid that he didn't even know but nobody really believes that. Most people think that Iqbal was assassinated by the carpet cartels. And don't let that

jovial name fool you. These are child labour gangs and its particular gang that Iqbal had spent years fighting on the global stage. Others including members of his own family, believed that Iqbal was actually killed by the group

who had helped him escape slavery. One thing's for sure. Iqbal Masi was silenced. Likbal Masi was born on the 1st January, 1982, in a small village, Nimeridiki, a city in Punjab, eastern Pakistan. His father, Saif and his mum, Inayyat, and the rest of the Marcy family lived in a two-bedroomed house within a dusty walled compound. Like a lot of Pakistani boys, Iqbal Masi loved cricket, football and riding his bike.

He also had a passion for learning and was hoping to go to school when the time came. But unfortunately for Iqbal, school wasn't really on the cards. In rural Pakistan, a lot of children don't really get to have much of a childhood. And Iqbal was no different. by the time Iqbal was just four years old he was considered ready to work and help provide for the family and when we say work

we don't mean just some sort of like Montessori helping mum out with the housework or helping dad work in the fields no no age four it was considered high time for Iqbal to get an actual job in a factory Why so young?

Well, because Iqbal's oldest brother was getting married. In Pakistan, while it's traditional for the family of the bride to foot the bill for any nuptials, getting married on the groom's side can be a pretty pricey business even still. An Iqbal's family barely had the money to keep up with basic living costs. So they looked to borrow it. And Saif asked his brother to speak to the local Thedekha. Which translates to contractor, but I think you said the last time we recorded this, it's more like broker. Yeah, I feel like Thakada, if I'm understanding it correctly, it's like, yeah, a fixer.

What do you need, I'll do it. So, yeah, a combination of somebody who works in recruitment, does payday loans, runs a startup, all of the bad things. and the Thicada was more than happy to offer Saif a loan of 600 rupees which today would be the equivalent of about 80 quid or 110 dollars but in return Thegad took four-year-old Iqbal to work in his carpet factory until the loan was paid off in the West we call this bonded labour or debt slavery when an individual services as a labourer are exchanged for a loan

which is worked off, supposedly, over time, that individual's rights and liberties are often at the mercy of the person who loaned the money, and they're only given back, once the loan has been repaid, either by the recipient of the money or by the hours worked by the bonded labourer. Now to us, obviously, the concept of a family

putting up their own four-year-old child as collateral for a loan sounds fucking nuts. That's because it is. But to understand how and why it was seen as completely normal for Saif and Nyayyat to do this, we should take a closer look at Pakistan's history and culture. When Akbar's family sent him to the carpet factory, he entered a complicated system of bonded labour and money lending, known as Peshki, which has become an integral part of Pakistani culture, especially in rural areas.

Peshki is a holdover from a different time before the Brits turned up, when what we now call Pakistan was ruled over by wealthy lands. landowners and tribal chiefs. Back then, the local economy ran on a system similar to Europe in the Middle Ages, where a few wealthy individuals owned most of the land, employing local peasants to tend crops and livestock. And just like here in Europe, these wealthy landowners would not only own the land the peasants worked,

but also the houses they lived in and the food they ate and the clothes that they wore. As a result, the landowners effectively owned the peasants themselves, or at least held control over their own. lives. The workers had no choice but to work for the landowners or they'd be left without a home or income. Think back to all of those times you visited a sleepy village or town in Middle England and been told that the entire area was once owned by a single family until a couple of hundred years ago. That family owned the local mill, the local farm, the local shops, the local school, and essentially they owned the labour and services of everyone in that

local area. It was basically the same thing in Pakistan still is. Yeah, exactly, because here in Europe, thanks to a whole bunch of factors like education and the Industrial Revolution, meant that the standard of living and the opportunity for social mobility actually became a reality. And if you've listened to our shorthand on the Black Death, the plague also helped, because those long-existing feudal systems eventually fell down, or at least began to change. You heard Jimmy Carr's take on the Black Death and the Priesthood? no so he reckons right and I think I agree that pre the black death priests were essentially diplomatically elected officials for their parish right everyone was like good bloke great like but then because more priests died in the black death than anyone else because they were going around giving people last rights all the good ones were culled basically so then there was this massive power vacuum when the plague went away so they're like oh he's got three teeth he can be the priest and that's when every

Things started to go really horribly wrong. My friends sent me this screenshot the other day about, you know, people who think that it's SPF that causes skin cancer and not the son. Eye roll. Exactly. And she lives in Cape Town. Her children are in nursery with people who believe that to be true. So they don't SPF their children and then she has to talk to them in the playground. You live in Africa.

I know. I want to put some like story of like the perils of SPF or whatever. She was like, what do we think this is about? And I was like, but people just want things to say, because if they don't have things to say, they have to admit that we're all just meatbags on a spinning rock. Like, it's just like, that's it. Like, you've just, but if the thing you're putting your whole weight behind and the skin of your children is that SPF is actually the thing causing skin cancer, then I kind of wish that the priests were the only ones that were literate, you know?

I do not understand. This has nothing to do with anything in this episode, but I do not understand the whole SPF. like conspiracy theory is it is it being helmed by big sink big Botox oh maybe and they're like everybody's really got on this whole prevention is better than cure situation and by cure I don't mean you have to cure your wrinkles obviously not it's just a little child but maybe that I go everybody's wearing too much SPF and nobody's getting wrinkly as quickly as they used to maybe we'll say that it's the SBF giving everybody skin cancer and then we'll get people to come here and pump their faces full of botulism I'm on board

I'm on board with that. I guess, like, I haven't spent any time speaking to this people, but I imagine their starting point might be, well, people have only just started getting skin cancer in the last 50 years. They've only just sort of known what it is. I think people just died before. And also, we burned a hole in the episode later. There's also that.

Which will be closed in 50 years. Yeah, that's something to look forward to. Yeah, because we stopped using CFCs when everyone told us to. Good. Well done. See, the planet can heal itself. Slight detour. Sorry. No.

Back on track. You're listening to an episode of Shorthand, our weekly show for Wondry Plus subscribers. Listen exclusively and ad-free every Tuesday on Wondry Plus through Apple Podcasts and Spotify or in the Wondry app. The town of Agda in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex. But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn. The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption. His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant. Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.

I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos. As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all. Legal proceedings have been initiated. Join me, Anna Richardson and journalist Leo Sheik for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption and magic. Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mayor exclusively and ad free right now on Wondry Plus. Start your free trial in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or the Wondry app. Basically, when those things changed in Europe, when the feudal system began to fall, people no longer wanted to be tied down.

working for the same family their parents had worked for, living in this same little village and being completely dependent on one wealthy individual to provide them with everything. So, just like many of you may have seen in Danton Abbey, I've never actually watched it, but I have on good authority that that is a big plot line of it. Basically, those wealthy families stopped holding so much power

over the local community. And serfdom and feudalism was down. Capitalism was up. Still, though, for various reasons, mostly thanks to tribalism, religiosity and a lack of education. Those old systems didn't fall down in the same way in Pakistan. I would also add corruption. Well, I'm going to let you say that with your brown face, and I'm going to keep my white one shot. As a result, some rural villages are still owned by the same wealthy families,

and locals still live and die working for them, some working on land and some working in factories. and that's why Peshki, bonded labour, has been able to persist to this day. But despite effectively being owned by a local land or factory mogul, a lot of poor, rurally living families still see Peschi as a good thing, or at the very least, a legitimate option. It's seen as safe and secure and reliable. As a result, a report published by the British government in 2019 estimated that there are roughly 20 million bonded labourers globally.

about 85% of whom are in India, Nepal and Pakistan. Families who enter their children into bonded labour are often convinced to do so by recruiters who work for the factory owners. These recruiters will go from village to village looking for young children to add to the workforce. Often these recruiters may be ex-bonded labour children themselves and will sell these families a dream

that their child will get access to work experience, education, may even get a small wage. while they work to pay off the loan. And it's definitely like a big part of the con. Like, I'm sure they're sending these guys out being like, look, my family did this to me and look how I turned out. I'm wearing, you know, a nice shirt and nice trousers

and look how well I've done for myself. It's just like a big fat fucking Ponzi scheme. Except instead of people just losing money, these children are being abused. It's horrific. Because, as you can probably imagine, this dream that these recruiters sell the families is not exactly how it plays out.

Firstly, the children are treated incredibly poorly. And on top of that, the families are charged extortionately high interest rates and additional payments for looking after their child in what is essentially a fucking Victorian workhouse. As a result, many families are completely unable to pay off the loan because the interest rate and the care of the child payments

mean the loan actually grows faster than they can pay it off, all of which means many children stay in bonded labour for their entire childhoods and sometimes their entire lives. So just let that sink in. Some family could send their child off to a situation like this for the cost of 600 rupees, 80 quid, but that child could then end up in bonded servitude being a slave for the rest of their lives because of 80 quid.

And that is how it was in 1986, not 18, 1926, 1986, 4-year-old Iqbal ended up being picked up at 4 in the morning for his first day of work. When he arrived at the factory, Iqbal took his place on a rough wooden bench, behind a carpet loom with a few other young boys. For the first few months, Iqbal and the other boys trained as apprentices. They were taught the process of setting up a weaving needle to create the intricate rugs that were made at the factory and sold to local exporters who sold them on to Europe and then the US.

The conditions in this factory, like all such factories, were abysmal. Not only did Abel and the other boys work from four in the morning until seven at night, but also the rooms in the factory were completely sealed. This was in an effort to protect the rugs from insects. All the windows and doors were therefore blacked out and no air could pass through from the outside. The factory was also swelteringly hot and sticky from sweat and poor ventilation.

The sharp knives and tools that Iqbal and the other boys used would also often cut their fingers and palms and the wounds would quickly become infected in the heat. four-year-old Iqbal found it hard to learn the difficult patterns and techniques needed to weave the rugs and since he was also an active child who struggled to concentrate the factory enforcers would often chain him to his loom to stop him from wandering off and despite this tiny child's poor work ethic eventually Iqbal completed his apprenticeship and was put out onto the factory floor an equally hot and sticky room which was larger and filled with 20 looms all run by small boys around his age

and that was where Iqbal spent the next six years of his life in the factory 15 hours a day with only a 30 minute break where he was fed a small bowl of dal and rice the cost of which was of course added to his debt over these six years Iqbal's brothers and sisters watched as the young excitable and active young boy

became a shadow of his former self when he was dropped home after a long day at the factory. He no longer had the energy for cricket or riding his bike. He just slept. Once at the factory, Iqbal was so tired that he fell a seat while working, almost lost a finger. The factory manager was furious at the child for staining a rug with his blood. So he pushed Iqbal's finger into hot oil and slapped him across the face for crying out in pain. And then Iqbal was sent straight back to the loom. Like many of the children, Iqbal would routinely become sick,

but the children never let it affect their work. If you were caught slacking, you were lashed on your back. And if you were sick, the managers took you to a room and hung you upside down by your ankles. Unsurprisingly, these working conditions and the severe malnutrition left Iqbal physically stunted. As he got older, his body didn't keep up, leaving him extremely small for his age. But amazingly, what wasn't stunted, was his attitude.

Iqbal was known as one of the talkback boys, who stood up to the managers and the enforcers. He complained about the conditions and spoke back when he was shouted at. As a result, he was regularly beaten within an inch of his life, but he never stopped. As Iqbal's situation worsened, and it became clear that his debt would probably stick with him for the rest of his life, the young boy rebelled more and more. He began regularly sneaking out of the fact,

and running into the city. Sometimes he would just spend the day walking around. Although once or twice he did try and find some help. Once, Iqbal ran all the way to the local police station, where he told an officer there what was going on. Iqbal was flooded with relief when the man asked him about the conditions at the factory, and Iqbal told him all about the beatings, lashings and scoldings with hot oil. Finally, the officer said, come with me.

And Iqbal jumped into the backseat of his police car. But the officer didn't take Iqbal home. He took him straight back to the factory, where the officer was given a big fat reward for Iqbal's return. And the little boy was taken to a dark room and beaten. But Iqbal never stopped trying to escape, even though every time he made it into the city, somebody found him and took him back to the factory.

Every time he would be beaten, and every time he was told that the next time he'd be killed. But as soon as another opportunity presented itself, he would be off again. As you can imagine, every escape attempt also meant more money being added to his debt, until the possibility of ever paying it off became totally impossible. And just to make everything worse, Iqbal's dad Saif abandoned his family. So, with Iqbal's mum, now struggling more than ever to keep up, she went to the factory owner to secure yet more loans.

Eventually, Iqbal's Peshki reached around 13,000 rupees, roughly one and a half thousand pounds in today's money. By the time Iqbal was 10 years old, he was a fierce young boy. His hands were calloused, and he raged with hate for the factory and his owners. During his various escape attempts, Iqbal had heard rumour of the B-L-L-L-F, or bonded labour liberation. Front. This group in Pakistan had been founded by a man named Essin Ola Khan, a human rights activist who had dedicated his life to ending bonded labor. By the time he came to lead the BLLF, Khan had been fighting for workers' rights as a journalist and campaigner since 1967. He'd organized strikes and peaceful protests that made real change to Pakistan's labor laws and provided basic human

rights for bonded labourers across South Asia, not just Pakistan. In 1987, Khan organised workers from the infamous brick kilns, where bonded labourers are forced to work long hours in incredibly dangerous conditions. A note I said are, not were, because brick kilns are most certainly still operational today. Children sit in the baking sun, pushing clay with their bare hands into moulds and leaving them out to dry. Kahn took these labourers

and helped them present a case to the Pakistani Supreme Court which eventually acknowledged the prevalence of debt labour and declared that brickmakers should apply for a civic court ruling to leave their workplaces if they were held under Peshki. Iqbal didn't know any of this. In fact, he wasn't quite sure who the BLLF were. Or why the factory enforcers kept telling him and the other boys to stay away from them. But he figured that if the enforcers wanted him to stay away, then he should probably go and have a look.

So one day in 1993, at just 10 years old, Iqbal escaped yet again, and attended a Freedom Day celebration hosted by the B-L-L-L-F and Aishan Khan. Iqbal stood in the corner of a crowded square and learned all about bonded labour. As he listened to Khan and the other speakers, Iqbal jaw dropped. they said that his peshki wasn't just wrong it was illegal just a year before the Pakistani government had actually cancelled the debt

that his family owed to the factory owner then in a moment of pure luck and fate a one that honestly sounds like it's happening in a movie because it just feels so right place, right time, right fucking kid that Essen Khan

Spots, Iqbal, curled up in the corner and called out to him. Khan asked Iqbal to come onto the stage and tell the crowd about his situation. And Iqbal did. He spoke angrily about who the factory owner was and how much his family owed and the conditions he had been forced to work in. And he told them all that he was never going back to bonded labour. After the meeting, Iqbal spoke to a lawyer from the Bial who wrote him a letter to send to the factory owner,

which he promised would grant Iqbal his freedom. And probably many a kid, many an adult, many a person would have taken that opportunity and run away. But it wasn't enough for Iqbal. He wanted to go back to the factory in person so he could help the other boys escape as well. And that's exactly what he did. After this escape,

Kahn and the BLLF arranged for a time. 10-year-old Iqbal to attend school on their freedom campus in Lahore. Iqbal was overjoyed, couldn't believe how much his life had changed in just a few weeks. During the day he studied hard and in the evenings he went out and actually played with other kids. Sometimes he went to the cinema or just sat in front of the TV watching cartoons like a normal kid would. And as Iqbal learned to read and write, his vocabulary and vision grew to match his passion. And he famously told his classmates that he wanted to be the Abraham Lincoln of Pakistan and free all the slave children.

Little did he know, Iqbal Masi would end up with a lot more in common with Abraham Lincoln than he may have thought. Iqbal's passion and ambition propelled him. Quickly he joined the BLLF volunteers. And when he wasn't studying, he was out learning how to campaign and protest. And, yeah, it was just like, and I don't mean. in a cynical way, but like the perfect find for Khan. 100%.

Because that day he stands up on that platform in front of a massive crowd of people next to a man like Khan who has spent decades of his life campaigning, protesting, speaking out, who's a journalist and activist. Iqbal as a child is able to have the confidence to go up there, tell his story in a compelling way, and understand even what Khan is saying and how this is going to help him save himself and also the other kids. And then with that education that he gets, how he is able to absolutely transform so much. And I think we have already recorded this episode.

But I forget that he dies tragically so young. And how much he achieved before that even happened. Because Iqbal was a natural-born revolutionary. Within months, he was worst in every damning statistic and every illegal practice. As a 10-year-old boy, he started doing what the authorities were obviously too corrupt. and too lazy to have been doing. Iqbal went to countless factories and spoke to thousands of other children

trapped in bonded labour, and he helped many of them escape their hell. Before long, he wasn't just out on the streets. He was also attending functions and talks with Kahn. And at these talks, Iqbal told journalists and political leaders from across the world about what he had suffered as a bonded child labourer.

He told them about the beatings, the heat, the hours, and showed them his 10-year-old scarred and battered hands. Quickly, it became clear that Iqbal's talks were hitting harder than anything the B-LLF had done before. Their organisation had spoken endlessly about child labour and bonded labour across Asia, and it had fallen on mostly deaf ears. But hearing it from a child who had experienced it firsthand resonated with leaders. Within a year of having escaped, Iqbal was talking internationally about,

about his experience, and was a guest speaker at an international labour convention in Stockholm. He attended the conference and made headlines across the world, once again eloquently and powerfully describing his life in the factory and touring Swedish schools to spread his message. But ridding Pakistan of child labour was never going to be easy. It was only in 1991. The Pakistan brought in the Employment of Children Act

which prohibited the employment of anyone under the age of 14. However, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimated that in the 1990s so after this act was passed 11 million children were still working in the country,

half of whom were under the age of 10. Like most countries where slavery persists, corruption is rife and governance is weak. Children who find themselves in these situations like carpet factories, brick kilns or other manufacturing centres are also often poor and completely ignored.

While boys are sent off to these horrific workhouses, the girls are often sent to be domestic servants. But their plight, make no mistake, is equally nightmarish. With rape and physical abuse, all too common. And so, with so many people standing to lose so much. As Iqbal's fame grew, he started to receive death threats from back home.

Factory owners were uniting against him, and they wanted him silenced. Hundreds of letters arrived at his dorm describing the myriad ways he was going to be tortured and killed if he didn't shut up. But Iqbal told the B-L-L-F that he didn't care, and that it just fuelled him, convincing him that he must be making a difference or they wouldn't be so angry Iqbal plowed on and soon his work was recognised on the world stage he received the Reebok Human Rights Award

which honoured activists under the age of 30 who were making a difference across the world while also using the factories that employ them don't want our very astute and intelligent listeners to think that we don't see the irony in that Yeah, I mean, this is the thing, isn't it? It's like we obviously had that conversation with Emily Kenway a very long time ago about modern slavery. And the point still stands.

You know, it can have all of the fucking rubber stamps of approval that they're, you know, slavery free, this, that and the other. But there is literally no way. And this isn't me excusing these brands, by the way. I'm just saying there is literally no way for you as a consumer to trust a brand when they tell you that no. that no slavery was used in their entire pipeline. The head of supply chain at, you know, insert major retailer, even they, no matter what they say, they can't know. No, there is no way because take even a company that is making trainers, right?

They can say, we don't use sweatshops to make them, which I would question because a lot of them outsource them to China. How do you know which factories China is using? China's probably using the fucking Uyghur concentration counts that they're currently running to manufacture the shoes. But even if you have your own factory out in China and you know it's above board, you've got people stationed there who know there's no sweatshop,

how do you know where the rubber's coming from? It's probably coming from a place in which children or people are being abused where slavery is rampant to make that rubber. Even if it's not there, how do you know that the cotton you're using is being picked from a farm where slave labour isn't being used? There is no way to know. Exactly. And obviously there's a lot of that which is you're difficult to not difficult, impossible to completely illuminate.

But equally, pick any sort of event to do with any sort of sustainability, whatever. They get private jets there. Like, it's all such a farce. It's all such a farce. And even stuff with... Leonardo DiCaprio was at just Deas's wedding. Get in the fucking... This is why...

This is my... I mean, this is why celebrity is dead, full stop. I just think. Who wants to be... lecture to by fucking Joaquin Phoenix while he stands up there and cries about cows while he probably gets a private jam. Get in the fucking bin. And any brand that tells you, oh, this is 100% sustainable and recyclable. Like, down to the glue? Down to the glue you use on your packaging, is it? Because your packaging may have been made by recycled paper. But if there's glue on there, most glue,

non-recyclable, straight in the bin. Like our own government telling us like, oh, this is all getting recycled. No, it's not. We sell it to fucking India and Pakistan and like random other countries. to like deal with and burn our rubbish like and this is also you know i'm not going to get into because like we're going off on a tangent but like all the greenwashing of like oh net zero i'm like now we just send all of our production to some other country and then say that we're net zero it's like okay if it makes you feel better i don't want to sound like defeatist about the slavery side of things coming back to the point of this episode i also just recognize that any brand that's telling you that they're full of shit because they don't know they're full of shit because it's

impossible. If they're saying anything but we accept that we are not going to be able to tell you 100% that we can eradicate it, but we are trying our absolute best. If they are saying anything other than that, they are lying and they know they are. Absolutely. So yeah, a bit of a bummer. A lot of a bummer. Scammers are best known for living the high life. until they're forced to trade it all in for handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit once they're finally caught. I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagey.

And we're the host of scam influencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of some of the most infamous scams of all time, the impact on victims and what's left once the facade falls away. We've covered stories like a Shark Tank certified entrepreneur who left the show with an investment but soon faced mounting bills and active lawsuit followed by Larry King and no real product to put. He then began to prey on vulnerable women instead, selling the idea of a future together while stealing from them behind their backs. To the infamous scams of Real Housewives stars like Teresa Judice, what should have proven to be a major downfall only seemed to solidify her place in the Real Housewives Hall of Fame. Follow Scamfluencers on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to Scamfluencers early and ad-free right now on Wondry Plus. Today is the worst day of Abby's life. The 17-year-old cradles her newborn son in her arms. They all saw much I loved him. They didn't have to take him from me. Between 1945 and the early 1970s, families shipped their pregnant teenage daughters to maternity homes and forced them to secretly place their babies for adoption.

In hidden corners across America, it's still happening. My parents had me locked up in the godparent home against my will. They worked with them to manipulate me and to steal my son away from me. The godparent home is the brainchild of controversial preacher Jerry Falwell, the father of the modern evangelical right and the founder of Liberty University. Where powerful men, emboldened by their faith, determine who gets to be a parent and who must give their child away.

Follow Liberty Lost on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast. But in December 1994, Iqbal Masi stepped off a plane at Boston Airport with Essen Khan. Iqbal were a traditional salva camis, but of course with a big puffy jacket over the top as he shivered against the cold Boston air. Sharon Cohen, vice president of Reebok's PR team, was there to greet Iqwell. Cohen's team had spent months following the little boy, who was now 11 years old, and known around the globe. Sharon was so awestruck as Iqbal walked over that she blurted

Blurted out, I've read so much about you. I don't know whether to speak to you as a child or as a man. To a chick-bar replies simply, I'm a child. I don't know how it was delivered. He's right, but I do empathize with Sharon. Yeah, yeah. I feel like during the whole concept of this episode, during the first record, during the second record,

I still find it so hard to believe that he is as young as he is. And I sometimes want to refer to him as a man, but he never stops being a child because he dies. young. And I think, like you said at the start, everybody knows Malala, right? And I don't think everybody is aware as much of what Iqbal did. But if you Google him, I think most people at least Arrage would recognise his face. I agree. So Iqbal spent the next week being shown around Boston by the Reebok team. The little boy loved the big city. And he liked that there were so many tall buildings and Christmas trees. It was like something out of a film. The team

took him to see the Lion King at the IMAX, thinking that it would absolutely blow his tidy mind. But Iqbal told them that while he did like the film very much, they should remember that Pakistan has films as well. Iqbal was also taken to a department store to see rugs very similar to the ones he used to make in the factory. None of these rugs in that department store had the rug mark certification, a label for rugs that are verified to have been made ethically, supposedly. Iqbal suspected that they had certainly been made by kids,

and he was probably right. He couldn't believe that they were being sold in the US for hundreds of dollars when he got paid just $4 a week to make them. It would have taken Iqbal about 10 years to purchase a single rug made by one of his fellow bonded workers. For the next few days, Iqbal went on a tour of Massachusetts, and he visited several schools to talk about his experiences in the factory. He made his biggest connection with the kids of Broadmeadows Middle School

in the city of Quincy. The students were all from lower-income families and had been through serious struggles of their own and they spent the day asking each other questions. Iqbal asked about life in the US and the students asked him about his time at the factory. At the end of the day, the kids surprised Iqbal with some presents that they'd got together, including a backpack, a school shirt,

an honorary school membership, a friendship bracelet, three gumbulls, some instant hot chocolate, some white rice, and a hacky sackball. The Reebok Foundation also took Iqbal to a world-class children's hospital to be checked over by the doctors. His body was still scarred from his time in the factory,

even after a year of freedom. And he was diagnosed with physical dwarfism, which is when a person is notably small in stature, but as a result of environmental factors like malnutrition, rather than genetic ones. The doctors told the first of, foundation that Iqbal's growth plates were still open, and with some hormone therapy,

he might be able to regain some stature. That evening, they took Iqbal out for pizza to celebrate. But Iqbal wasn't keen. It didn't taste like anything he was used to back home. I often think about stuff like that where, like, I have very specific things that because I grew up eating them, I think they're the best thing ever. But I suspect, kind of like if you only watch Mrs. Doubtfire at 35 for the first time. You don't really get it if you try them later in life. And it's not Boston, is it? But, oh, it's Chicago.

Oh my God. Deep dish. When I went to Chicago, I've only ever ordered a deep dish in Chicago once. And I was like, what the fresh hell is this? It's wild. I've never had wild. Oh, it was. It is literally a pie. It's a cheese pie. You cut it and it all just comes pouring out. I was like,

Wow. I could never. It's It's quite shocking. You're not built for cheese, though, whereas I, as a Western European, absolutely. I'm very specifically bred only for cheese. Absolutely. Smashed it. Apparently, I hear a famine thing that we can process.

Lactose, whereas a lot of Asians can't because very specifically there was some sort of prehistoric famine where you only survived if you could drink milk. I heard it originated from the Dutch. That sounds right. Yeah. I believe they had a bunch of cows, and they were like colonised the whole world. Well, you know, everyone was at it, why we have kebabs and KFC. Anyway, after Iqbal had decided that pizza wasn't for him, their rest of the day was for an award ceremony.

And Iqbal accepted his award and spoke to a room packed full of hundreds of journalists. During his speech, he held up a pen and a knife. And as he lifted the pen, Iqbal told the silent audience that this is the tool of a child. Then he lifted his knife and said, this is the tool of a child in bonded labour. That afternoon he gave countless interviews to reporters all stunned by the passionate young boy, who despite the gifts, the films and the fancy hotels, couldn't wait to get back to Pakistan and returned to campaigning for kids to be free. Before Iqbal left the States, he was presented with a few final gifts. $10,000 from Reebok, which Khan insisted be kept in the US in an

account in Iqbal's name, a full university scholarship, and most meaningfully to Iqbal, 656 individual letters addressed to Pakistan's then Prime Minister, Berazir Bhutto, and then US president, Bill Clinton. The letters had been collected by students from Broadmeadows Middle School, who had canvass the city of Quincy in Iqbal's name. Love those kids. Yeah, got to fucking love those kids. I wonder where they are now.

I know. Whoever you were, well done. because they come through again, as we'll find out at the end of the episode, but just smashing kids there, really. Iqbar returned to the Freedom Campus in Lahore in January 1995 as an absolute hero. He had brought the bonded labour crisis to the world stage. Now it wasn't just a national problem, but an international one. And now companies across the world were pledging to sign up to the rugmark.

and other certificates to verify that they weren't using child labour. And so the child labour factories were starting to close by the day. However, as Iqbal's reach and success widened, so did the death threats. Factory owners across Pakistan who had lost everything were holding meetings and rallies against this child, trying to take away Iqbal's power and his voice. But Iqbal refused to stop. He continued to visit factories every day and tell the children that worked in them that legally they were free

and that the factory owners had no right to keep them there anymore. When his friends asked if he was scared, I'm not afraid of the owner any longer. Now he is afraid of me. In April 1995, Iqbal took a little break and he went home to Muradiki to visit his family for Easter. His wife's family were Christian, and having him back for the festival meant the whole world to them. His mum was so proud of her son.

He'd become the first person in their family to get any kind of education. And that day, his little sister spent the whole day following him around wherever he went. On the 16th of April, Iqbal went to visit his cousin called Lechat, who lived nearby. Iqbal arrived at his house around 7pm just in time to join Leacat and his mate, Fayette, as they set off to take Leikat's father Amanat some dinner, like they did every single night. The three boys all hopped on the same bicycle and headed off to a nearby farm.

Ammanat was an illiterate labourer who had worked the same fields his entire life. The kind of man that Iqbal was destined to become had he not escaped. As the sun faded that day, Ammanat chatted away to his fellow workers, excitedly telling them all about his nephew, Iqbal, who was coming to visit. He was the Wonder Kid taking on Pakistan's child labour factories.

And guess what? Today he was coming to bring Aminat his dinner. But that night, Iqbal, Lechat and Fayad never arrived. Just before Ammanat was expecting to see his son, a colleague of his called Ashraf, who they all called Hero, said he wasn't feeling very well, and needed to go home to drink some tea. and so Hero asked to borrow Amanat's donkey cart

and set off in the same direction that the kids would be coming from. A few minutes later, shots rang out across the fields and children's screams followed them. Ammanat dropped his tools and sprinted towards the cries. When he rounded the corner he found his donkey cart lying in the road, the donkey bucking wildly. A few metres away were all three children.

The air cat was unharmed. Fayyad was clutching his arm as blood poured out of it and Iqbal was lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood he'd been shot in the back with a shotgun and died instantly Iqbal's death caused instant outrage across Pakistan and hit headlines across the world the next day he was buried in a small graveyard near the family home

800 people arrived for the ceremony including journalists from far and wide. In the days that followed, 3,000 children marched on Lahore, screaming for change in Iqbal's name. The Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, raged against Iqbal's death and declared that Iqbal's family

would receive payment from the government to help with the loss. Sadly, little did she know that she would also, not long after, be assassinated. Ashen Khan, head of the BLLL, called a press conference and told the watching world that it was clear Iqbal only had one enemy, the carpet mafia.

But two investigations, one from the Pakistani police and another from Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, concluded that Ashraf, aka Hero, had acted alone. According to both investigations, Ashraf confessed to the murder immediately after being caught. He told them that as he was donkey-karting his way down the road, he was pretty high on cannabis leaf paste which is called bang locally. Ammanat's donkey had started playing up and he got off the cart to start hitting it

and that was when the three children rounded the corner and started to shout at him so according to Ashraf's confession in a moment of panic he took the shotgun which he'd mysteriously picked up as he left the fields and shot the children. Yeah, we'll go on to talk about like this decision and like

what other people thought but I think It's very obvious that the reason the police and, like, the officials don't want to delve any deeper and have absolutely no curiosity about this. It's just because it's an incredibly high profile case, one that not only within Pakistan, but internationally had a lot of eyes on it, they just didn't want to dig any deeper. They didn't want to open that can of worms. They were just like, hey, look, this guy did it. Telling me that guy confess, even if he had been paid to do this, which is what I strongly believe happened. they would have just beaten him until he gave them the story that they wanted. Like, there is no doubt in my mind that that would have happened.

And they just didn't want, they didn't want to start picking through this. I'm sure, you know, you might be wondering, well, like, surely the carpet mafia haven't got enough money to pay off the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, maybe not. Their motivations are probably just not wanting to be exposed for not doing a good job investigating it or to open up a can of worms that they wouldn't be able to close. No, exactly. and like there's, you know, high profile, powerful people will be exposed in the end because they're everywhere.

If you pull at that thread of the Carpet Mafia, there are going to be very important, very wealthy, very powerful people who are going to be exposed for corruption, extortion, anything you can imagine, and they don't want that to happen. And that's why it doesn't. So this conclusion from the Pakistani police and the Human Rights Commission, divided Pakistan, and even Iqbal's own family.

A rumour spread that it was actually Essen Khan and the BLLF, the foundation Iqbal had worked so closely with that had ordered the hit. But why would the BLLF ever want to hurt their poster boy? The rumour was that it was because of Iqbal's money,

including that $10,000 that Reebok had given him. The thinking was that this money would be passed down to Khan after Iqbal's death. But that just wasn't true. Iqbal's $10,000 had been safely deposited in a U.S. bank account, which could only be accessed by Iqbal when it came time to pay for his education. And remember, it was actually Khan that had told him not to take the money to Pakistan and to leave it in the US.

And the BLLF and Khan had no need for Iqbal's money anyway. The press alone that Iqbal had brought had set up the BLLF to keep fighting bonded labor for a lifetime. And on top of that, they had been given a separate $20,000 by Reebok to fund their organisation anyway. This idea of BLLF involvement had been spread across Pakistan by factory owners and the press. And it had even convinced members of Iqbal's own family. Iqbal's older brother still maintains that Iqbal's murder was paid for by the BLLF, and Iqbal's mother initially told the press that she didn't believe that the carpet factories were involved.

she did later change her mind and moved to live on a campus run by the BLLF which to some people who believe that conspiracy theory would have made that just look more suspicious but it's like do you want to look at the BLF trying to help Iqbal's family or silence them for murdering their fucking golden goose

even if you're super cynical for $10,000 but unfortunately the rumours did stick and Eshang Khan received so many death threats and attacks that he ended up leaving Pakistan altogether The 78-year-old still campaigns tirelessly to end child labour across South Asia but he's never returned to Pakistan. It's not all doom and gloom, though.

Less than a year after Iqbal's murder, President Bill Clinton brought in a law banning the import and sale of any goods made by bonded child labourers. Which, as discussed, on the surface, looks like a good thing. But it is impossible to say that there is 100% no slavery in any supply chain. It just cannot be done. But there is proper good news. The children of Brooks Meadow Middle School began a national campaign to build a school in Iqbal's name, and they raised $150,000 and ended up building the Iqbal-Marsie Education Centre in Kassau in Pakistan.

And they did that in 1996. That school takes in thousands of children every year. Who without it would end up in bonded labour? Not that things are anywhere near resolved. In Pakistan, it is still estimated that 2.3 million people are living in modern slavery. And to my great shame, India is estimated to have a whopping 11 million people in the same situation as of 2021. So yes, just a gentle reminder of what's actually going on in the world right now, today, this very minute, in terms of slavery. And I wish I could tell you all, as we've been saying throughout this episode, just by slavery-free goods.

put those guys out of business. Buy the tuna can with the dolphin on it. Yeah, exactly. And also that kind of propaganda. And I'm not saying like fast fashion is acceptable or good. Of course not. But that idea of like, well, just buy more expensive stuff because they must be paying people better.

They must not be using slavery. It's just, there is no guarantee. And I really wish that wasn't the case, but it's just not that simple. And I hate to sound a fetist about it, but all we can really hope is that internationally more pressure is put on countries like this to tackle this issue and we have to just hope that the economies of these countries continue to boom particularly in places

like India and China and that once that happens they'll catch up with the rest of the world but tragically that won't be before yet more generations of children are born live and die under the yoke of modern slavery so the next time someone gets their knickers in a twist about something really stupid. Like, is listening to true crime to go to sleep weird and indicative of you being a bad person with a broken brain? The retort to that is like, I think there are more important things to be worrying about, my friend.

Quite. So there you go. Hopefully you're all not, you know, too bummed out, but it is... And if you're asleep, I'm in your dream. There you go. Very, very depressing episode. But there you go. I think the problem with this kind of case is that

even as we tell it, I think it's very difficult for people to imagine that this is real, to believe that this is real, because it feels so far removed from like our lives. Like, I just finished watching the latest season of Squid Game yesterday. Oh, did you? It feels like that. Season one or any season. Oh, no, season one and two I've watched. Okay.

It's worth it. Okay. It's worth it. I think, you know, tangent. I was going to talk about it on the duvet, but yeah, let's, you know, maybe slow. I'll cheer everybody up before we end this episode. But maybe not. Maybe you hated it.

I think a lot of people were like they hated season three or there was a lot of like criticism going into season three because, and I haven't checked on this, but I think what it is is that it was sold to American producers. But then at the end it was like directed by it and it was definitely a Korean name. So I don't know. But basically people had their like knickers in a twist because Kate Blancher is like randomly does a cameo at the very, very end of the last episode.

And I heard that Cape Blanche was in it. And like, I watched the whole thing and I was like, No, she fucking isn't. And then, like, the end, she's in, like, the last five seconds. Right. Yeah, it's worth a watch, for sure. It was really, really good. I really enjoyed it.

The baby plot line made me feel really unwell. Like, I feel like they were obviously just trying to push the boundaries, push the boundaries, push the boundaries, push the boundaries. I like, maybe I'm just feeling particularly sensitive right now, but I was like, well, this is a bit much. Okay. So, yeah. Wow, that just filled up my evening.

Exactly. So, yeah. Enjoy. something else because you probably didn't enjoy this. And we will see you next week for something else. Goodbye. Bye. divorce or making support arrangements.

At Learners, our team of experienced family lawyers are here to guide you every step of the way. These are life-altering events that come with many questions and concerns. Trust learners to help you move forward. Visit learnersfamlylaw.ca. That's L-E-R-N-E-R-S-Familylaw.ca. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories,

are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices. Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling, they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries should be your new,

go-to weekly show. Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wonderry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.