Malala seals $3mn deal to publish memoir

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating girls' education, has signed a deal for a whopping $3 million to pen down her memoir.

The 15-year-old, who staged a dramatic recovery after being shot at point-blank range, calls the book titled I am Malala her own story and that of millions of others denied the chance to go to school. The book, due to be out in autumn this year, will be published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson in the UK and Commonwealth and by Little, Brown in the rest of the world.

The deal is reportedly worth 2 million pounds ($3 million).

Publishers Weidenfeld and Nicolson say that her memoir will tell what happened on the day she was shot ‘and the inspiring story of her determination not intimidated by extremists’. The book will also be about the schoolgirl's family, who ‘gave her remarkable courage’.

Malala writes in the memoir that Tuesday, October 9, 2012 was ‘not the best of days as it was the middle of school exams - though as a bookish girl I don't mind them as much as my friends do’.

She escaped death by a matter of inches on that same day when she was shot on a school bus in north-western Pakistan as the bullet entered just above her left eye and ran along her jaw, grazing past her brain. The Taliban had said they targeted Malala because she promoted girls' education and 'Western thinking'.

"I want to tell my story, but it will also be the story of 61 million children who can't get education. I want it to be part of the campaign to give every boy and girl the right to go to school. It is their basic right," Malala said.

She said, "I hope this book will reach people around the world, so they realise how difficult it is for some children to get access to education."

Surgeons in Pakistan removed the bullet before she was air-lifted to the UK for life-saving treatment at QueenElizabethHospital in Birmingham where she is currently living with her family. Last month, Malala was discharged from the hospital after she had an operation to rebuild her skull and restore hearing.

She has now returned to school and joined the girls in class IX. Her father has been appointed education attache at the consulate of Pakistan for the next three years besides being appointed a United Nations educational advisor.

Also, July 12 has been designated by the United Nations as 'Malala Day'. Malala began writing a blog on the BBC Urdu service under a pseudonym about life in the SwatValley in 2009. She was shot after her real identity became known. Since the shooting, she has been awarded several peace prizes and is the youngest person to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Malala Fund, set up on behalf of Malala and her family, is dedicated to the education and empowerment of girls in Pakistan and around the world.