Students Propose Renaming ‘Sighele’ Middle School After Iqbal Masih

How many people, if given the chance, would change their school’s name? Students from four classes at the “Scipio Sighele” Middle School, led by their classmates from II B, are willing to try. They have already collected one hundred signatures to this end.

The name they dislike is that of the institution, one of the three middle schools in the city. Sighele is unknown to almost no one, especially at age 12. Asking their parents for biographical notes about the author of “// Nazionalismo” is considered unnecessary.

Some place him among patriots, others among martyrs of freedom. The students of II B, guided by Prof. Aldo Miorelli, offer a definition that not all historians will accept: “Based on our research, Sighele appears to be not only a writer and sociologist but also a nationalist-imperialist.” Supporting their thesis, they cite passages from Sighele’s “II Nazionalismo,” where virtues of war and the duty of man to “serve” the State are exalted.

Proposal to rename the school after Iqbal Masih

And here is, unexpectedly, the proposal—provocative but achievable. “We would like our school’s name to be changed to honor Iqbal Masih.” He, a Pakistani boy born in ’83, is a symbol of child exploitation and the fight of the weakest against oppression, against contemporary slavery.

Iqbal was sold by his parents to a trader. He was forced to work on looms chained with a shackle. He managed to escape, meeting Ullah Khan, a journalist and promoter of the Force of Liberation Against Child Labour. Iqbal recounts his story in Stockholm, at the world conference on childhood.

It was 1994, and he was just 11 years old. “I will become a lawyer to defend children,” he said to the world. He would have succeeded if he had not been murdered at age 12, on Easter Sunday of ’95. The proposal by the students of “Sighele” will be discussed by the school council in the coming days. It could set a precedent for other schools as well.