Noor Memorial @ Pir Zia Inayat Khan

Apr

01

2013

Noor Memorial

News Posted by Zia Inayat-Khan / 0 comments

Who would have thought that a peasant girl would lead the army of France in a heroic struggle and establish the rightful king on the throne? And yet Joan of Arc did just this. Six hundred years later, who would have thought that a demure young harpist and author of children’s stories would become the last link between the Allies and the Resistance in Nazi occupied Paris? And yet this is just what Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan did. Like St. Joan, Noor-un-nisa paid the ultimate price and died a martyr’s death.

Thanks in large part to Shrabani Basu’s excellent biography, Spy Princess, people around the world are discovering anew the story of Noor-un-nisa’s valiant life and death. Building on the message of her book, Ms. Basu has for some time led a campaign to memorialize Noor-un-nisa in London, and now at last her efforts have borne fruit.

On November 8th, 2012, Princess Anne unveiled a statue of Noor-un-nisa in the Gardens at Gordon Square, where Noor and her family lived for a time when she was a child.