This is a typical rags to riches story – someone who by sheer courage and confidence made a fortune out of misfortune.
Once gunned down by Taliban in Pakistan's Swat Valley, Nobel Peace Prize winner and women's education rights advocate Malala Yousafzai is a millionaire today.
This inspiring young woman from the Indian sub-continent, who was shot three times in the head by a Taliban gunner while travelling home from school in a bus with her friends in 2012, is making millions of pounds from her best-selling autobiography and speaking engagements, according to reports.
Her book “I am Malala” was published in October 2013 by Weidenfeld & Nicholson in the UK in a deal reported to be worth around £2 million.
According to a report in The Times, a company set up to protect the rights to her life story had £2.2 million in the bank by August last year, and made a pre-tax profit of £1.1 million. Malala, 18, her father, Ziauddin Yusafzai, and her mother, Toor Pekai, are joint shareholders of the company, Salarzai Ltd.
After the brutal attack on her she received medical treatment in Britain. At present, Malala lives in Birmingham, UK, studies at Edgbaston High School for Girls.
Malala is in constant demand globally, charging £114,000 per speech compared with Desmond Tutu's reported £64,000, according to US-based Institute for Policy Studies.
A spokesperson for Malala told Daily Mail: “Since the publication of Malala's book, Malala and her family have donated more than £750,000 to charities, mostly for education-focused projects across the world, including Pakistan.”
