34. From Pacifist Musician and Author of Children’s Stories, to Warrior Princess
Princess Noor Inayat Khan 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 regularly featured in children’s magazines, and was frequently heard on French radio. She did all that before she was 25-years-old.
When the Nazis overran France in 1940, Noor and her family fled to Britain. Although raised as a pacifist, she and her younger brother Vilayat decided to set their pacifism aside 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 mind-numbingly tedious work, so to relieve the boredom, she applied for a commission in 1941, in the hopes of getting a more interesting assignment. She would get an extremely interesting assignment.
