I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban is an autobiography of Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani woman who was shot after promoting female education in the Swat District, which is located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

Dr. Irfan Ul-Haq, an associate professor of mathematics, promoted the book through the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Campus Read program for the 2014-15 academic year.

Ul-Haq believes that all students can benefit from reading the book.

In 2009, Malala Yousafzai was 12 years old and wrote a blog that illustrated her life under the Taliban’s rule for the British Broadcasting Corporation.

One of the Taliban’s laws banned women from being educated.

In her blog, Yousafzai explained that the Taliban had attempted to monopolize the valley.

At this time, Yousafzai was attempting to promote an education for 22 young girls in the country.

As Yousafzai was becoming a well-known advocate, she began conducting interviews and was awarded the International Children’s Peace Prize by South African activist Desmond Tutu.

On October 9, 2012, Malala was shot three times by a gunman while boarding her school bus.

After the assassination attempt, Yousafzai gathered international attention and continued her education in Canada as an honorary citizen, earning an honorary degree at the University of King’s College in Halifax on May 15.

“I think this book will spark cultural and religious debates,” Ul-Haq said. “This will bring more awareness about the common person in that region.”

UW-Platteville students expressed their own perspectives of the injustice and lack of tolerance in that region of the world.

“It seems like the Freedom Writers all over again,” freshman business administration major Abby Nemitz said. “What she was trying to do wasn’t accepted, and people tried to kill her.”

Ul-Haq recommends that several members of the faculty should read the book and incorporate its contents throughout their lesson plans in different classes.

Any students interested in reading I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban can request the Campus Read at the UW-Platteville website.