Cambridge remembers Noor Inayat Khan, Muslim World War heroine.
11th November 2010

The riveting story of World War II heroine, Noor Inayat Khan - the "Spy Princess" - was reounted by her biographer Shrabani Basu to mark Remembrance Day at Trinity College, Cambridge on 11 November 2010. The talk was also the launch of the fund-raising drive for a memorial bust of Noor Inayat Khan to be installed in Gordon Square, London. The bust will be the first Memorial to an Asian woman in Britain. It will also be the first Memorial to a Muslim in this country. Noor Inayat Khan was a secret agent in the Second World War. A descendant of Tipu Sultan, the famous ruler of Mysore, Noor was infiltrated into occupied France under the code name of Madeleine.

She was the first woman radio operator to be sent in the field. Noor worked almost single-handedly in Paris for three months before she was arrested. She was betrayed, captured, and executed on 13 September 1944 at Dachau Concentration Camp, aged only 30.. Noor was a Sufi and believed in non-violence. She chose to volunteer for the front-line as she was principally opposed tofascism. She was posthumously awarded Britain's highest civilian honour, the George Cross. France awarded her the Croix de Guerre.

Cambridge M.P, Julian Huppert said: "Noor's story is testament to the fact that regardless of race and religion, people will stand together against evil and fight for freedom and democracy. Her story is an inspiration and she is one of hundreds of thousands of armed forces personnel from all nationalities who have given their lives so that we can have a future. On this Remembrance Day, we should reflect on their sacrifice and honour their memory by working to build strong, united communities like the one we are so fortunate to have here in Cambridge."

Trinity College, Cambridge has a long association with the Indian sub-continent. India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru was a student at Trinity. Mathematician Srinivas Ramanujan studied here as did Muhammad Iqbal, the philosopher and poet. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was Master of Trinity from 1998 to 2004.