Timothy Ryan

About the author: Timothy Ryan is a representative in South Asia for the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

The life and death of Iqbal Masih, a Pakistani child activist, reveals that sweatshops are not solely the result of economic hardship. After escaping from a six-year bondage as a carpet weaver, Masih campaigned against the exploitation of child laborers in industrial plants before his murder at the age of twelve. Like most child laborers and bonded workers, Masih was a member of a religious minority. This fact proves that racial, religious, and ethnic discrimination play a large role in the proliferation of sweatshops. The exploitation of poor workers in developing countries must, therefore, be seen as a human rights violation and not purely as a consequence...