Noor Inayat Khan (1914 – 1944) was a British secret agent in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II. Sent to France as a radio agent, she maintains contact with London and transmits important messages.
A dreamy girl
Daughter of Ora Ray Baker, descendant of a ruling family of a kingdom in India, and of Hazrat Inayat Khan, descendant of a noble family from India, Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan was born on January 2, 1914 in Moscow. She is the eldest of four children. A Muslim religious leader invited to Russia by Rasputin, Hazrat raises his children in the principles of peace and non-violence.
In 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, the Inayat Khan family left Russia to settle in London and then, in 1920, in Paris near Suresnes. Calm, sensitive and dreamy young girl, Noor attended the Saint-Cloud high school then studied child psychology at the Sorbonne and music at the Paris Conservatory, with Nadia Boulanger (sister of the composer Lili Boulanger).
When her father died in 1927, Noor assumed responsibility for her grieving mother and siblings. After her studies, she embarked on a career as a woman of letters by writing poetry and stories for children. She works for magazines and radio shows, and publishes the collection Twenty Tales from the Past Lives of Buddha Jātaka .
Women's Auxiliary Air Force
When the Second World War broke out and German troops invaded France, Noor Inayat Khan and his family left the country by taking a boat from Bordeaux to reach England. Although raised in the values of pacifism and non-violence, she and her brother Vilayat decided to participate in the fight against Nazism.
In November 1940, Noor joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). Speaking English and French, she took an intensive radio operator course. In 1941, she was assigned to Abington Bomber Center Radio Links. The same year, she became an officer and specialized in intelligence. At the end of 1942, Noor was recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), British secret service operational during the Second World War. The mission for which she was recruited consisted of traveling to France to be a radio operator for the PHONO network, a sub-network of the Prosper-PHYSICIAN network. Aware of the danger, she accepts.
Special Operations Executive
After a new intensive but incomplete training, and after being named second lieutenant, Noor Inayat Khan is deposited in France at night; she carries false papers in the name of Nora Baker, false food stamps, an automatic pistol, stimulants, sleeping pills, nausea simulators and a cyanide pill. She is the first female radio operator sent to France.
In Paris, Noor finds his contacts and immediately gets to work, relaying information to London. A few days later, the leaders of the network are arrested following a betrayal and Noor flees to find refuge with other of his contacts. As a massive dragnet continues within the PHONO network, she attempts to broadcast despite the danger and narrowly escapes arrest on several occasions.
Only radio operator in the Paris region
During the following weeks, the members of the network gradually disappeared and Noor Inayat Khan became the only free radio operator of section F in the Paris region. The leader of the SOE writes on this subject:"His post is currently the most important and the most dangerous in France".
Noor takes this responsibility seriously and relays information to London from agents in France. At the same time, it strives to reconstitute the network dismantled by the arrest of most of its members. Actively wanted by the police who have an accurate description of her, Noor cannot broadcast for long periods of time and must constantly move, but she refuses to give up, even when offered repatriation to England.
Betrayal
In October 1943, Noor Inayat Khan was betrayed, either by Renée Garry, sister of the head of the network, or by Henri Déricourt, an SOE officer suspected of being a double agent. On October 13, the young woman was arrested by the Gestapo. She struggles furiously and repeatedly tries to run away, but is recaptured each time. Questioned for more than a month, she does not give a single piece of information about her activities. Her notes, and a certain lack of vigilance from the SOE, however, allow the Germans to impersonate her and transmit false information and booby-trapped meeting places in London.
Following her escape attempts, Noor is treated as a dangerous prisoner. Isolated behind steel doors for nine months, she is bound by the feet and hands and a chain connects these bonds between them. Despite the cruelty of this treatment, Noor persists in refusing to be cooperative. In September 1944, she was transferred, along with three other prisoners, to Dachau. The four women are violently beaten by SS officers before being shot.
Noor Inayat Khan's last word before dying is:"Freedom".