Who was Noor Inayat Khan, the British-Indian spy whose portrait was unveiled by Queen Camilla?

Britain’s Queen Camilla has unveiled a new portrait of the Indian-origin spy and descendant of Tipu Sultan, Noor Inayat Khan, at the Royal Air Force (RAF) Club to honour her sacrifice as an undercover agent for Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the World War II. The 76-year-old senior royal on Tuesday also formally named a room at the RAF Club “Noor Inayat Khan Room,” where the portrait hangs opposite a stained-glass window celebrating women in the RAF which was inaugurated by her late mother-in-law Queen Elizabeth II in 2018. Also read: How the soaring ‘spy’ balloon could take already strained US-China ties to a new low Meet British Indian spy Noor Inayat Khan Born Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan in Moscow on 1 January 1914 to Hazrat Inayat Khan and Ora Ray Baker, an American who had changed her name to Amina Sharada Begum after her marriage, according to The New York Times. Noor was a princess since her father was a direct descendent of the 18th-century monarch of the southwest Indian kingdom of Mysore. Inayat Khan was born in Baroda, a city in western India, but he left the nation to spread Sufism in the West. He fell in love with his wife while giving a lecture in San Francisco. Noor’s three siblings were born in London after the family relocated to Paris during World War I. In 1920, the family moved back to Paris and eventually made their home in the western neighbourhood of Suresnes. [caption id=“attachment_13060302” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Her Majesty The Queen unveiled a portrait of SOE Operative, Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan GC, and formally announced the name of a room in her honour at the Royal Air Force Club. AP[/caption] Inayat Khan passed away during his Indian pilgrimage. Noor, who was only 13 years old, was left to care for the family as her mother struggled with grief. Noor enrolled at the École Normale de Musique de Paris while writing short tales, poetry, and other literary works while running the household. At the Sorbonne, she also pursued a degree in child psychology. Twenty Jataka Tales, a collection of tales about the reincarnation of Buddha that she translated into English, is one of her most well-known works. According to PTI, following the fall of France during the Second World War, she escaped to England and joined the WAAF. In late 1942, she was recruited into the SOE – created to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied territories during the war. Noor was a member of RAF’s Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) when she was recruited to the SOE in 1942 and went on to become one of only two members of the WAAF to be awarded the George Cross (GC) – the highest award bestowed for acts of the greatest heroism, or for the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger. “Noor was the first woman SOE operator to be infiltrated into France and was landed by Lysander aircraft on 16 June 1943. During the following weeks, the Gestapo arrested most of the Paris Resistance Group in which she worked. Despite the danger, Noor refused to return to England because she did not wish to leave her French comrades without communications and she hoped also to rebuild the Group,” the RAF Club said in a statement. “The Gestapo had a full description of Noor, who they knew only by her code name ‘Madeleine’, and in October 1943 she was captured by them. Despite brutal interrogation, she refused to give any information, either as to her work or her colleagues. She was imprisoned in Gestapo HQ, during which time she made two unsuccessful attempts at escape, and was then sent to Germany for so called ‘safe custody’. She was considered to be a particularly dangerous and uncooperative prisoner,” it noted. Noor was then taken to the Dachau concentration camp, where she was executed on 12 September 1944, reported Independent. Founded in 1918, the RAF Club is a private Members’ Club and registered charity that provides a home away from home for officers of the RAF and their families. The Club counts around 24,000 Officers and former serving officers of the Royal Air Force and their families as its members. A stamp honouring her was released in 2014, and there have been rumours that her image may soon be on British coins. As the first woman of Indian descent to get the honour, Britain presented her with the Blue Plaque in 2020. Noor received the French Croix de Guerre, a military medal bestowed by France in 1946, and the George Cross, the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the United Kingdom, posthumously for her bravery. Noor did not have to fight in the war, according to British Indian author Shrabani Basu, who founded a memorial in her honour in 2012. However, she did so for her core principles of “non-violence, the universality of religions, fighting against fascism and occupation,” which Shrabani told Al Jazeera from London. The book based on Noor’s life, Code Name Madeleine: A Sufi Spy in Nazi-Occupied Paris, written by Arthur Magida, was also released in June 2020. The work of three British women spies, including Noor, during World War II is paid tribute in the movie _A Call to Spy_, which was also released on 2 October 2020. “I think Noor Inayat Khan is one of the most extraordinary people I have come across,” Radhika Apte, who portrays Noor in the film, told Al Jazeera from London. She added, “She was at such an interesting juncture of being a pacifist and also her inactivity, of not doing anything, could have consequences for the war.” Also read: From Mata Hari to Markus Wolf: A look at how honey traps are used in espionage All about the portrait The portrait has been created by celebrated British artist Paul Brason, a former President of the Society of Portrait Painters. He based his creation on the few available images of Noor Inayat Khan to capture her steely resolve as an undercover agent, who refused to crack under brutal Nazi interrogation before being shot by the Gestapo at Dachau concentration camp in Germany in 1944 with the word “liberty” on her lips. Her new portrait at the RAF Club was unveiled in the presence of her relatives, including 95-year-old cousin Shaikh Mahmood and nephew Pir Zia Inayat Khan. “One of the difficulties about painting a portrait of someone who was operating undercover, particularly in the Second World War, is that people who work undercover don’t like photographs being taken of them. So that means, in regards to the reference material, there is not very much of it. Certainly, none of it in what, dare one call it, her professional capacity, because she would avoid it,” Independent quoted Brason as saying. However, he claimed that working from a small number of pictures of Ms Khan allowed him to create the image. [caption id=“attachment_13060392” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Britain’s Queen Camilla is presented with a book called ‘The Spy Princess – the Life of Noor Inyat Khan’, by its author Shrabani Basu at the Royal Air Force Club in London. AP[/caption] “It was a proud moment to have the Queen unveil the portrait of Noor Inayat Khan at the RAF Club,” said Basu, who presented a copy of her biography of Noor – Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan – to the Queen at the unveiling ceremony. “For me, it has been a privilege to tell her story. This wonderful portrait will now be seen by many young men and women for generations. Noor’s story will never be forgotten,” she said. Noor’s cousin, Mahmoud Khan, 95, said it was an “excellent” likeness. “It is an excellent likeness,” he said, adding, “That is what struck me most, that the painter did so much to bring her personality to life. It is truly splendid.” With inputs from agencies Also read: Sex and Spies: Has Pakistan army been using actors to honey trap politicians?