The recent online campaign calling to have Noor Inayat Khan’s face on the new £50 note has gained interest and support from MPs, but some may be asking..
Who is Noor Inayat Khan?
Noor Inayat Khan was the first Muslim heroine of the Second World War. Known now for her bravery as a secret spy, she began by running Winston Churchill’s network of resistance communication in Paris before being killed by the SS in a concentration camp.
Khan’s father was an Indian musician and Sufi teacher, and her mother an American. She began her career in Paris as a children’s writer before fleeing to Britain after the fall of France. In Britain, she trained for the Women’s Auxillary Air Force and then worked for the Special Operations Executive, she was the first female radio operator working in Nazi-occupied France in 1943 at the age of just 29.
Khan was shot and killed by the SS at Dachau concentration camp in Germany in 1944 after almost a year of torture by the Gestapo.
For her courage, Noor Inayat Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949 and now MPs are campaigning for her to be the face of the new £50 note. Baroness Warsi said ” Here is someone who symbolises everything great about Britain- a young Muslim woman who gave up her life for her country“
Helena Horton features Noor Khan in the Telegraph
