Nasreen Sheikh was nine when she fled Rajura, the village where she was born on the India-Nepal border. “People there are often victims of forced labor and women are domestic slaves,” she explains. Back then, at the age of just 10, she fell into the hands of the textile industry as a child laborer. He slept, ate and worked in the same room, which he calls a “prison cell,” in a secret factory in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. His working day was 12 to 15 hours a day and labor rights were non-existent. “My fingers were bleeding, but they forced me to keep working for less than two dollars and a grueling shift,” he recalls. The rules were simple: if they didn’t do all the work, they didn’t get paid. When they fell asleep, loud music or cold water was played in their faces to wake them up.
Sheikh is one of the most recognized international voices fighting for women’s rights in South Asia and against forced labour. Her story has led her to found the organization Empowerment Collective, which aims to eradicate modern slavery by empowering marginalized women in Nepal and India. She is also one of the promoters of the Good Clothes, Fair Pay campaign, in which more than 57 organizations from around the world “call for legislation at European level that guarantees decent wages in the clothing, textile and footwear sectors”. This means that any company wishing to manufacture or sell products in the member countries of the European Union (EU) must meet certain requirements relating to fair wages, human rights and sustainability. Their goal is to collect one million signatures in order to have them registered as a European citizens’ initiative.
The garments we sew have been washed many times before reaching well-known western stores. So my suffering would be erased and not a single thread would tell my story.
This survivor denounces the high human cost of consuming fast fashion in the Global North: “At the factory, the electric wires got tangled on the floor and the sparks burned my skin,” she elaborates. These memories not only left a psychological mark, but also a physical one as he still has the scars. “They remind me of where I come from and the trauma of slavery I survived,” she laments.
Food was very sparse and he often had to remove sutures from his mouth to chew. Also, the chemicals sometimes didn’t allow him to breathe normally. After each day he “collapsed” on the piles of clothes he used as pillows and blankets. “They fed us like animals and we worked like machines,” he says.
Sheikh began hating every garment she made while envying them for knowing they would end up in a different part of the world while remaining locked up: “Over time, I found out that the of garments sewn by us were washed many times before they reached the well-known West shops. The suffering—our blood, sweat, and tears—would be blotted out, so that not a single thread would tell my story.” Her biggest criticism, therefore, is directed at the CEOs of the big companies in the industry, to whom she assures that they are addressing the suffering of girls as you ignore and “think only of their benefit”: “We remain invisible: enslaved workers who live, work and die in sweatshops at this time, and whose children will do the same.”
A million signatures for a living wage
This story of modern slavery is no exception. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), almost 50 million people are victims of this type of exploitation, which has increased in recent years. 12% are boys and girls. This is why the campaign for a living wage for garment manufacturers is so important to survivors like Nasreen Sheikh. “The textile industry stole my childhood and is destroying the planet. And no one talks about it…” he denounces.
More than 7,500 liters of water are required to produce just one pair of jeans
Nadège Seguin, coordinator of Fashion Revolution Spain, is mobilizing thousands of people in Spain to spread the word about the campaign. “Enforcing this legislation in Europe would severely restrict companies that decide to relocate,” he points out. Likewise, beyond the main objective of the campaign, they want to raise awareness of the suffering of these workers. “As consumers, we must learn to do better within our means. We prefer to blame the industry rather than understand our involvement in this circle. This campaign is an opportunity to show that we really care about the rights of those who make our clothes because it doesn’t cost anything to sign,” he says. As the environmental activist explains, there is no similar case law anywhere in the world: “We want this campaign to set a precedent,” she adds.
To date they have collected over 73,000 signatures and expect the campaign to grow in the coming months. “We know there are people who are very keen that this doesn’t go ahead and the companies have a good marketing strategy. But there is also a lot of citizen participation,” he emphasizes. Working conditions are not the only concern of the initiators of this campaign, but they also highlighted the environmental impact of fast fashion. This industry is the second most polluting in the world and is responsible for more than 20% of the world’s total water waste. More than 7,500 liters of water are required to produce just one pair of jeans. Thus, according to Seguin, the success of the campaign would not only benefit workers in the Global South, but all of humanity. In addition, this could also favor small manufacturers whose potential customers tend to turn to the big brands.
From Fashion Revolution Spain they are satisfied with the response the initiative has had, but they recognize that there have also been difficulties. “Some think this would make the garments more expensive, but it’s not,” he says. To do this, they use Oxfam Australia’s Made on Poverty report, which shows that companies would only need to increase sales costs by 1% to guarantee workers a decent wage.
80% of global workers in the textile industry have a female face
This change could have made a huge difference in Nasreen Sheikh’s life. The atrocities and sexist violence the young woman was subjected to in her hometown forced her to spend her childhood in a factory and away from her family forever. “My family forced my older sister to get married at the age of 12 and I felt like I would be next. In the search for my freedom, I ended up being a victim of child labor,” she recalls.
Nasreen Sheik with workers from Local Women Handicrafts, in Nepal. Courtesy image
Women make up 80% of the workforce in this sector worldwide and there are studies that suggest that gender-based violence is both a cause and a consequence of economic exploitation. For this reason, Sheik founded Local Women Handicrafts, a handicraft shop that supports women in vulnerable situations to gain economic independence while producing sustainable products according to fair trade principles.
Your long-awaited fashion revolution may be near. In the meantime, she is not giving up hope that other women and girls like her will exchange looms for textbooks: “If I could find a way out, then 50 million could, with the help of the whole world.” . For her, the success of this campaign would be the beginning of a major global change: “If we are successful, more and more survivors will join and this is important to ensure that all the children of the planet have the basic necessities: food, water, shelter, Health, education, a safe environment and access to technology that will enable them not to become victims of modern slavery,” he concludes.
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