Hi I’m Jacqui and a story that is important to me would be the novel Iqbal. This novel is about an adolescent boy named Iqbal masih who worked in a child labor camp. It is told through the eyes of one of his female friends who had accepted her role as a child laborer. This attitude proved the wild spirit of Iqbal and why it was so rare. The poor conditions of the camp are described as well as their workday. The worst thing about these conditions is the how the people who enslaved the children treat Iqbal and the others. The treatment the children receive is filled with deception and fear that is quite simple because these children are very young. One day Iqbal escapes, frees his friends, and spends the rest of his life freeing other child slaves until he was assassinated at age twelve on April 16^th 1955.  It is a tragic and true story that highlights one struggle of the Middle East. This story was important to me because I read it when I was eleven, and just starting to gather a worldly perspective. I had realized that slavery still existed but what I did not realize is that it was not uncommon in the Middle East. Reading about a boy roughly my age being assassinated because he was freeing young children from unpaid labor was the first time I cried when reading a novel, and the beginning of my interest in world affairs. This opened up other issues revolving around oppression such as gender equality, and recently acceptance of sexuality. It gave me perspective on my life and opportunities in a way that made me want to make a positive difference on maybe not specifically child labor, but the violation of human rights of any kind. This book gave me enough perspective to care about the well being of others.