Iqbal

When Iqbal announces that he plans to stay and help the Liberation Front, Eshan pushes back and says that Iqbal belongs to his family. Iqbal argues that it will not help him to go home, as he will likely get bonded again. Iqbal wants to help free other bonded children. Another person speaks up and says that Iqbal could be useful because he could sneak in and gain the trust of bonded children, and Iqbal adds that he has been learning how to read and write. Eshan feels that the work would be too dangerous, but Iqbal asserts that he is not scared.

After a short visit to his family, Iqbal returns to headquarters and joins the Liberation Front. His family is worried, but they allow Iqbal to make his own choice. Iqbal plans to become a lawyer in the future. Iqbal, Fatima, Maria, and Karim study and participate in meetings, while the rest of the children who were enslaved by Hussain return to their families.

Iqbal begins helping the Liberation Front by sneaking into factories. He helps free 32 children from a carpet factory, and Fatima and Maria help care for them when they arrive at headquarters. He helps shut down 11 factories and saves around 200 children, but he is not satisfied with the progress of the Liberation Front. He wants to attack the moneylenders. On his next mission, he is caught but manages to escape. Eshan says they all need to be careful and that the moneylenders and the other people who profit from exploiting children want to silence the Liberation Front. Eshan is worried that Iqbal has become too well-known and that he is not safe. Shots are fired one night, and people in the street make violent gestures at Fatima and the others. Protestors stand and watch headquarters and the people there.

Iqbal attends a speaking event with Eshan, and he is given the chance to talk. During his speech, Iqbal names the moneylenders and other individuals involved in bonded labor, and a riot breaks out. The event is discussed in the papers the following day, and Eshan agrees that it is good for the cause.

Meanwhile, Fatima enjoys her freedom. She and her friends go to the movies, watch television, and listen to foreign music. An American reporter arrives and interviews Iqbal and Eshan, which helps spread the Liberation Front’s message. During the night, headquarters is bombed as a warning, and one man is injured.

The Liberation Front investigates a brick factory, and Iqbal describes it to Fatima and Maria. Iqbal and the others on the mission sneaked into the factory by riding in the back of a truck. They got there at dawn and saw whole families working, but the bonded workers did not look up from their work. Iqbal talked to a child and found out that the families must make 1,200 good bricks to earn 100 rupees, but they are charged for their huts, food, and supplies, so they are left with no money by the end of the day.

Iqbal is disturbed by seeing grown men working in the factory. Iqbal asked the boy he talked to about his feet and learned that the children have to climb on the kiln to refill it, and all their feet are badly burned and calloused. The munshi, or the director, drove up and yelled at the Liberation Front to leave. He then went into his office, got a gun, and shot at them. Iqbal tells Fatima that he was scared, but he hasn’t changed his mind about working with the Liberation Front. Shortly after their conversation, Iqbal leaves, and Fatima returns home.

In November, Eshan brings Iqbal, Fatima, and Maria into his office and shows them the United States on a globe. He announces that Iqbal won the Youth in Action award from Reebok. He won $15,000 and global attention for the mission to free the bonded children in Pakistan. Iqbal and Eshan will go to Boston to accept the award, but they will stop in Sweden to speak at an international conference. Iqbal was also awarded a scholarship.

Iqbal is sad at the idea of leaving, but he is happy that he will get the chance to get an education, so he can better help the movement to free the bonded children. Eshan also announces that they found Fatima’s family, so she will return home. Fatima cries from feelings of intense joy.

The following weeks pass in a whirlwind as reporters visit and Iqbal prepares to depart. Fatima learns that her parents are dead and that her older brother, Ahmed, will take her and her little brother, Hasam, to Europe. Maria will stay at headquarters, and she promises to write to Fatima with updates. The night before Iqbal leaves, Fatima and Iqbal talk like they used to. Fatima goes to the airport with Iqbal and Eshan to see them off the next morning.

Fatima returns home to her village, and she starts to remember a bit about her past. She settles into daily life, taking on the duties of her deceased mother. Maria writes to say that Iqbal’s travels went well, but his new Reebok shoes were uncomfortable. She says that Iqbal and Eshan will return soon and that Iqbal will be visiting his family over Easter. Along with the letter, Fatima receives an article with a picture of Iqbal.

Months pass with no new updates from Maria, and the date of Fatima’s departure for Europe approaches. She believes that Maria has forgotten about her, but two days before Fatima and her family leave for Europe, she receives a letter.

Maria writes that she misses Fatima and has not forgotten her. Maria did not want to have to deliver bad news to Fatima. Iqbal went home for Easter as he had planned. His village celebrated his return, but Iqbal grew tired of their attention, so he started to avoid people. He was out alone at 3pm on Easter Sunday after a feast and celebrations when a car pulled into the village. Iqbal was riding his bike when someone in the black car shot and killed him before driving away.

Maria argues that Iqbal is not dead. She saw him in an escaped boy who turned up at headquarters and then in another who turned up three days later: “They were Iqbal, too” (89). Maria says that she will carry on Iqbal’s mission, and she will attend college and become a lawyer. She tells Fatima that they need to remember Iqbal and spread their story.