3. The Princess Spy
Princess Noor Inayat Khan was born in Moscow in 1914 into an unusual family. Her father was a Sufi Master and Muslim noble, descended from the royal family of eighteenth century Indian monarch Tipu Sultan. He worked as a musician and teacher of Sufism. Noor’s mother, Pirani Ameena Begum, was born Ora Ray Baker, an American from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The couple met in New York City, but when her guardian forbade her from seeing Inayat, Noor’s mother sailed to London and married him there. Noor’s parents left Moscow for London, where they lived during WWI. After the war, they relocated to France. Growing up, Noor was described as sensitive, shy, quiet, and dreamy. Little about her indicated that one day she would secretly infiltrate into Nazi-occupied France during WWII as a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) – a clandestine organization tasked by Winston Churchill with “setting Europe ablaze!“
Noor studied music at the Paris Conservatory, becoming an accomplished harpist and pianist, as well as a virtuoso on the veena – a stringed Indian musical instrument. She also studied child psychology at the Sorbonne. Noor also became an accomplished poet, wrote children’s stories, was featured in children’s magazines, and was frequently heard on French radio. All that, before she was 25-years-old. When the Nazis overran France in 1940, Noor and her family fled to Britain. Although raised a pacifist, she and her younger brother Vilayat set aside their pacifism to fight Nazism. In November, 1940, Noor joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as an Aircraftwoman 2nd Class, and began training as a wireless operator. It was tedious work. To relieve the boredom, she applied for a commission in 1941, in the hopes of getting a more interesting assignment. Her requests for more challenging tasks attracted British intelligence.
