made speeches about child labour all over the world. He expressed a desire to become a lawyer to better equip him to free bonded labourers, and he began to visit other countries, including Sweden and the United States, to share his story, encouraging others to join the fight to eradicate child slavery. In 1994 he received the Reebok Human Rights Award in Boston, and in his acceptance speech he said: "I am one of those millions of children who are suffering in Pakistan through bonded labour and child labour, but I am lucky that due to the efforts of Bonded Labour Liberation Front, I go out in freedom I am standing in front of you here today. After my freedom, I joined BLLF School and I am studying in that school now. For us slave children, Ehsan Ullah Khan and BLLF have done the same work that Abraham Lincoln did for the slaves of America. Today, you are free and I am free too." Death Iqbal was fatally shot by the "carpet mafia," a gang that killed slaves if they ran away from a carpet factory; while visiting relatives in Muridke on 16 April 1995, Easter Sunday. He was only 12 years old. His mother said she did not believe her son had been the victim of a plot by the "carpet mafia". However, the BLLF disagreed because Iqbal had received death threats from individuals connected to the Pakistani carpet industry. His funeral was attended by approximately 800 mourners. Following his death, Pakistani economic elites responded to declining carpet sales by denying that they were using bonded child labour in their factories and by employing the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to brutally harass and arrest activists working for the BLLF. The Pakistani press conducted a smear campaign against the BLLF, arguing that child labourers received high wages and favourable working conditions. Legacy Iqbal's cause inspired the creation of organizations such as We Charity, a Canada-based charity and youth movement, the Iqbal Masih Shaheed Children Foundation, which has founded over 20 schools in Pakistan, and GoodWeave International (formerly Rugmark). In 1994, Iqbal visited Broad Meadows Middle School in Quincy, Massachusetts, and spoke to 7th graders about his life. He inspired the famous afterschool program run by teacher Ronald Adams called ODW (Operation: Day's Work). When the students learned of his death, they decided to raise money with a financially productive program