Malala, the Pakistani teen shot by the Taliban, writes a book

Malala says she hopes telling her story will be 'part of the campaign to give every boy and girl the right to go to school'.

LONDON // Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot in the head by the Taliban as she returned home from school, is writing a book.

Publisher Weidenfeld and Nicolson announced it would release I am Malala in the UK this autumn.

"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, the US publishers.

Taliban gunmen shot Malala on October 9 in north-western Pakistan. The militant group said it targeted her because she promoted "western thinking" and, through a blog, had been an outspoken critic of the Taliban's opposition to educating girls.

The shooting sparked outrage in Pakistan and many other countries, and her story drew global attention to the struggle for women's rights in Malala's homeland.

Malala spent several months in a UK hospital undergoing skull reconstruction and cochlear implant surgeries. She was released last month and has started attending school in Britain.

Malala said that she hoped telling her story would be "part of the campaign to give every boy and girl the right to go to school".

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