Malala’s story

Pakistani girl Malala’s story grabbed worldwide attention after Taleban militants shot her in the head point blank for taking up the cause of education for girls in the Swat Valley.

She survived to tell the tale, going through several surgeries in the country and in the UK to reconstruct her face.

Malala who now goes to school in the UK is set to become a millionaire after publishers Weidenfeld & Nicholson in the UK and Commonwealth and Little, Brown (for other world markets) paid her the handsome sum to tell her story.

“Malala is already an inspiration to millions around the world. Reading her story of courage and survival will open minds, enlarge hearts and eventually allow more girls and boys to receive the education they hunger for,” said Michael Pietsch, executive vice president and publisher of Little, Brown

I am Malala will hit book stores later this year . “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. 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.”

The young girl’s life has changed overnight and the story of her courage has set off talks of a possible Nobel Peace Award for next year. But in the recession-hit UK and back in her country where thousands of families live in poverty, news of her good fortune has sparked off unseemly comments. Her own countrymen in the UK and the locals themselves have been on the world wide web questioning why the government is spending millions on her health and rehabilitation. One Pakistani man on the Net has commented that now that she has pots of money, it is time for her to pay back the government for what it has spent on her surgeries and transfer to the UK.

We wonder what the young girl thinks of all this.

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