How Malala Yousafzai became a millionaire; and how she’s spending her money

Malala Yousafzai first captured the world’s attention when she was attacked by Taliban on her way to school in the Swat Valley, Pakistan, in October 2012. In Anne Frank-style, Malala’s dispatches for the BBC in Urdu, on how much girls like her were worried about their education being disrupted by the Taliban, had already made her a figure of some prominence in her home country. But when the Taliban shot her for her speaking openly about the importance of education for girls, she became a global symbol of courage. [caption id=“attachment_2865020” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Malala Yousafzai. Image from Reuters[/caption] In the years since, Malala has continued to promote the cause of girls’ education around the world, in addition to becoming the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize recipient in 2014. (She shared the prize with India’s Kailash Satyarthi.) She has also, according to recent reports, attained millionaire status. By August 2015, Salarzai Ltd — a company which has been founded to protect the rights to Malala’s life story — reportedly had £2.2 million in its bank account. This year, the company reported a pre-tax profit of £1.1 million. Malala’s parents — Ziauddin Yousafzai and Toor Pekai Yousafzai — are shareholders in Salarzai, as is the 18-year-old Nobel Laureate. Salarzai Ltd is a separate entity from the Malala Foundation, through which Yousafzai operates her charity endeavours. How did Malala earn her millions? The proceeds from the sale of her memoir I Am Malala, account for a major chunk: The book deal was reportedly struck for £2 million; it earned a similar amount in worldwide sales (about 1.8 million copies were sold in all, according to Nielsen Book Research). Then there are her not insubstantial earnings from speaking engagements. Some reports state that Malala charges a fee of £114,000 pounds per speech — it has been contrasted with the £64,000 fee purportedly charged by another Nobel Laureate, Desmond Tutu. But Malala has substantial outlays in terms of expenditures as well. She will pay the British exchequer £200,000 in taxes for the last year. In addition, through the Malala Foundation, Yousafzai has donated around £750,000 (or USD 1 million) for various education-related causes. When Malala won the Nobel in 2014, she donated $50,000 of the prize money to rebuild a school in Gaza.