Noor Inayat Khan: A brown woman spy

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By Fareeha Molvi

(This post was originally published on Instagram on January 18, 2021)

You know I’ve been saying Hollywood needs to tell more brown women’s stories. Good news: Freida Pinto will star and executive produce “Spy Princess,” a limited series about Noor Inayat Khan, a British WWII spy (and brown woman!).

Noor was born in Moscow in 1914 to an Indian Sufi Master, Inayat Khan, and an American woman, Ora Baker. She grew up in London and Paris, exposed to music, philosophy and art. Noor studied at the Sorbonne and became a musician and author. 

“If one or two [Indians] could do something in the Allied service which was very brave and which everybody admired it would help to make a bridge between the English people and the Indians.”

Noor Inayat Khan

So, how did this pacifist, daughter of a Sufi mystic find herself on the frontlines of a world war? Recognizing the existential threat of the Nazi regime, Noor joined the British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. She also saw it as an opportunity to represent, writing, “If one or two [Indians] could do something in the Allied service which was very brave and which everybody admired it would help to make a bridge between the English people and the Indians.”

In 1943, Noor was recruited to British Special Operations as a spy. She began training to be a wireless operator, a dangerous position tasked with finding secure locations to transmit important intel via radio signal to Allied forces while staying incognito from the Gestapo. 

If you’re expecting a story about a daredevil superheroine, guess again. In actuality, Noor’s superiors were doubtful whether she could perform, citing her gentle, child-like manner, clumsiness and aversion to guns. But because the Allied Forces were in desperate need of wireless operators in occupied France, they shipped Noor out before she completed training, landing her the title of first female wireless operator.

“Noor is unlike all the other female superheroes, warriors and badass women I see in film and TV, who train so hard and are so great with all the physical stuff, almost leaving us mere mortals to believe that courage means being good at everything. Noor has a quiet strength that she’s not entirely aware of,” Pinto said of the unlikely heroine. 

I’m all for relatable, human stories – I find them more impactful. Do you agree?