Sharjah, United Arab Emirates - February 22, 2025 His pictures of child slaves called “Talibés” in Senegal were chosen as World Press Photo of the Year in 2016. Mario Cruz is an independent photographer from Portugal focused on social injustice and human rights issues. Talibé is an Arabic term for disciple. Throughout Senegal, children follow an old practice of begging for their religious guardians called Marabouts. What tries to pass as a form of education is only a way of business for those exploiting children everyday. The schools are highly unregulated, and conditions in many are poor, with near-starving children living in overcrowded, unsanitary circumstances. The pupils are beaten and sometimes kept in chains for hours on end. Some are the victims of child-trafficking. Talibés are frequently made to beg on the streets for up to eight or nine hours a day, giving all they collect to their marabout. Human Rights Watch research indicates that an estimated 100,000 talibé children living in residential daaras across Senegal are forced by hundreds of Quranic teachers, or marabouts, to beg daily for money, food, rice or sugar. Some force the children to beg for set quotas of money, enforced by often-severe beatings. This is in contrast to the many other Quranic teachers who respect the rights of the children in their care. While the Senegalese government made efforts to expand its child protection interventions in recent years, inconsistencies in programming and the limited reach of justice have failed to protect talibés from abuse and deter forced child begging on a wider scale. Cruz’ image of a boy in chains has been chosen by the Senegalese government to educate the people. A selection of his images is exhibited at Sharjah’s international photography festival “Xposure”. The Middle East’s largest photography trade and imaging show runs for one week, until February 26. More than 100 exhibitions will showcase more than 2,500 images. SHOTLIST: - Various of Mario Cruz’ exhibition at Xposure - General shots of Xposure - SOT Mario Cruz, photographer (English)