Campaign Underway in UK to Put Noor Inayat Khan on £50 Bill

British politicians, historians, and academicians have thrown their weight behind a campaign to feature World War II hero Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan on a redesigned 50-pound currency note.

The Bank of England had recently announced that there would be an open submissions process for the new polymer note to be issued in 2020 and indicated that it would invite public nominations for a new face on the currency note. British politicians and historians said that this would be a perfect opportunity to raise awareness about the spy.

British newspaper the Telegraph said Inayat Khan was the first Muslim heroine of the Second World War, running Winston Churchill’s network of resistance communication in Paris, before being captured and tortured by the Gestapo, then murdered by the Nazis at Dachau concentration camp.

Indian news agency PTI said an online petition in favor of the campaign started earlier this week and has already attracted over 1,200 signatures by Oct. 17, calling for Khan, born in Moscow in 1914 to an Indian Muslim father and an American mother and raised in France and Britain, to be considered as the first ethnic minority British woman to be honored on the currency.

The Telegraph said that despite being born to a wealthy family and having the option of leading a comfortable life, Noor decided to serve Britain after fleeing from her home in Paris after France fell to Nazi Germany during the war. She later trained for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and was later recruited as an agent for the Special Operations Executive (SOE), becoming the first female radio operator sent into Nazi-occupied France in 1943, aged just 29. She was captured and killed by the Nazis in 1944 when she was just 30.

Khan has a memorial at Gordon Square in central London.

According to PTI, the campaign is being backed by British politicians, historians, and academics, who have taken to social media to voice their support.

“The new 50-pound note could have anyone on it. I’m backing Noor Inayat Khan. She volunteered for SOE, served bravely as an agent in occupied Europe, was eventually captured and murdered. A Muslim, a woman, a hero of WWII. This would celebrate her courage and all SOE,” PTI quoted Conservative Party MP Tom Tugendhat as saying.

The Telegraph quoted Transport Minister Nusrat Ghani saying, “It’s a phenomenal story, you don’t think about the money in your purse when you think about young girls taking a minute to think about the fantastic work that she did and the ultimate sacrifice she made. The more you learn about her, the more you learn how brave and bold she was.”

As a Sufi, Khan believed in non-violence and supported the Indian independence struggle, but she felt compelled to join the British war effort against fascism, the news agency said.