24. Raised a Pacifist, This Woman Set Pacifism Aside to Fight the Nazis
Princess Noor Inayat Khan studied music at the Paris Conservatory and became an accomplished harpist and pianist, as well as a virtuoso on the veena – a stringed Indian musical instrument. She also studied child psychology at the Sorbonne. She also became an accomplished poet, wrote children’s stories, was regularly featured in children’s magazines, and was frequently heard on French radio. Noor did all that before she was 25-years-old. When the Germans invaded and overran France in 1940, she and her family fled to Britain.
Although she had been raised a pacifist, Noor and her younger brother Vilayat decided to set their pacifism aside in order to fight Nazism. In November 1940, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as an Aircraftwoman 2nd Class and began to train as a wireless operator. It was mind-numbingly tedious work, so to relieve the boredom, she applied for a commission in 1941, in the hope that she might get a more interesting assignment. The assignment she got was extremely interesting.