#noor inayat khan

[evviejo]

thirteen's era appreciation: 443/?

[redbreastedbird]

hi robin!! do you think george would still be as politically passionate by the events of bitb and would Ralph share communist/far left views? especially curious given the famine that the british government caused in india during this era. thanks!!

Oh absolutely! I’m super interested in Noor Inayat Khan - it’s impossible to think about George as a British Indian WW2 spy and not think about her - and one thing I found fascinating when I was reading about her was the way she was outspoken about being both British and Indian. She believed in the future of a free India but was also willing to be part of the British war effort - it initially made the SoE nervous but she managed to persuade them that she could be loyal to both countries.

I think that George holds similar views - he hates what the British are doing in India, but also feels that it is worth allying with them to help defeat Nazism. I do suspect that post WW2 he would become more closely tied to the Indian independence movement - but that’s all years in the future and not something I’ve thought about fully yet!

[thingsasbarcodes]

Doctor Who 12x02 - Spyfall, Part 2

[whats-in-a-sentence]

Noor Inayat Khan was the daughter of an Indian Muslim family of musicians and poets, a descendant of the ruler Mysore, Tipu Sultan. She overcame her Buddhist belief in not taking life because of her opposition to Nazism and her hope of making common cause between Indian and English people.

She was the first woman radio operator ever dropped into France, and she chose to stay on in Paris as the only English radio operator, even when her circle was broken up and she was offered evacuation.

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

[tanambogo2113]

Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan January 1, 1914 –September 13, 1944.  Noor, a pacifist of Muslim descent, was a British spy during WW II, code name, Madeleine. She handled clandestine radio traffic in occupied Paris for the Prosper Circuit nearly singlehandedly after her entire team had been captured by the Germans. Although offered the opportunity to be evacuated back to Britain, she decided to remain in occupied France. She evaded capture for approximately four months until she was betrayed. After her arrest, incarceration, and torture, she was ultimately transferred to Dachau Concentration Camp, where she, along with three other female SOE agents, were executed on September 13, 1944. Noor's final word prior to her execution was “Libertè!” Noor Inayat Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949. She was awarded a French Croix de Guerre with a silver star. 

[dukeofriven]

But not, like, so much of an ally that I'm going to, y'know, do anything to prevent you being murdered in Dachau next year. Which makes my last words to you being 'good luck' particularity ghoulish and reprehensible. [The Chibnall era is so fucking bad you guys. You can critique Moffat and RTD alike for their various quirks of style, their fumbles and mistakes, but the Chibnall era is a neo-liberal moral vacuum and it is genuinely disgusting.]

[pancreasnostalgia]

Noor-Un-Nissa Inayat Khan, by Sufiya Ahmed. Another true story about a descendant of Indian royalty. Again, doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the series due to Noor’s age.

The back cover would have you believe that Noor was Churchill’s personal spy and that she worked closely with him, but really she was a member of the SOE and so part of a larger network of spies. That being said, the way she is portrayed in this book is questionable. She’s not overly perceptive or discrete, and there are multiple times when she appears to violate the Official Secrets Act.

The cover art makes no sense, as Noor would not have been wearing a WAAF uniform while undercover.

[amitshridhar]

Noor Inayat Khan (1 January 1914-13 September 1944)

20/06/2024, thursday 20 june 2024, 01:45 a.m, indore, madhya pradesh, india.

[valkyries-things]

PRINCESS NOOR INAYAT KHAN // SOE AGENT

“She was an Indian princess and a wireless operator for the SOE under the name Nora Baker, at a time where wireless operators had a life expectancy of six weeks. Noor was actively transmitting for over three times as long. While she was in France, every other wireless operator in her network was slowly picked off until she was the last radio link between London and Paris. She was offered a way back to Britain and refused. In fact, in her transmissions to London, she once said she was having the time of her life and thanked them for the opportunity to do this. She was captured by the Gestapo, but never gave up; she made three escape attempts. One involved asking to take a bath, insisting on being allowed to close the door to preserve her modest, then clambering onto the roof of the Gestapo HQ in Paris. Her last words before being shot on September 13, 1944 in Dachau Concentration Camp was “Liberte!””

[gwydionmisha]

The Muslim Pacifist Who Spied On The Nazis: The London History Show

[alanmalcherhistorian]

Yolande Beekman (nee Unternahrer) SOE Wireless Operator: French Section

Yolande Beekman Yolande Unternahrer was born in Paris to a Swiss family in 1911 and moved to London as a child. After the declaration of war in 1939 she enlisted into the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAFFs) where she trained as a wireless operator. Due to her language skills, she spoke fluent English, French, German and Italian, Yolande came to the attention of the Special Operations Executive…

[evviejo]

thirteen's era appreciation: 383/?

[13thdoctorshitposts]

Thirteenth Doctor + Incorrect Quotes                                   ↳ 144/?

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

I would like to thank RTD for making so many people look back at Thirteen's Era and start to go "you know what? Maybe we judged the writing too harshly on this one." Maybe it is a good idea to bring in new writers and more women and people of color behind the scenes and allow them to write and direct things like Demons of the Punjab (top 5 ever Doctor Who episode) and the Haunting of Villa Diodati and Fugitive of the Judoon. Maybe Thirteen WAS camp, because the universe who decided to be a frog and the mud that did witchcraft and the Pting and the plastic that ate birds were unhinged and fun. Maybe we got some GORGEOUS cinematography out of it. Maybe Thirteen's take on gender is more interesting than the 60th anniversary specials. Maybe Yaz DID get an arc in the Flux/standalone specials and people just didn't pay attention. Maybe the Power of the Doctor paid more respect to former eras of Doctor Who than any of the 60th anniversary specials did. Maybe Chibnall acted with far more grace to the RTD Era (Jack) than RTD did to Chibnall (treatment of Yaz and Thirteen). Maybe it was actually cool to see less well-known or underexplored historical figures like Mary Seacole and Ada Lovelace and Nikola Tesla and Noor Inayat Khan end up onscreen. Maybe Thasmin wasn't queerbait, it was an interesting exploration of the doctor/companion romance IN KEEPING with Thirteen's established character with one of its keystone episodes written by a queer woman.

Yes, Chibnall was flawed. I'm never gonna pretend that the Battle of Ranskoor Av Kalos wasn't a piss poor finale that felt like a first draft of themes and idea. I'm not gonna pretend like the multiple companions in the TARDIS ever felt properly balanced or explored. Yes, the moment with the Master and the Nazis was FUCKED UP. The Timeless Child might have deserved more than one episode for the ImplicationsTM to be fleshed out. But EVERY Doctor Who Era has its flaws, ESPECIALLY when it comes to racism, and I'm TIRED pretending as if Chibnall's writing is significantly worse than the other two showrunners.

[kopfkino-o]

"Elain is too soft and weak to ever be a spy--"

I feel like it's very fair for me to say that when myself, and many other Elriels, say "Spy Elain" we do not mean Elain turning into 007 so she can run around Prythian in the dark like a stabby stabby girl boss

We mean spies like the women spies from WWII.

Spies like Vera Atkins, Noor Inayat Khan, and the infamous Nancy Wake who was described as "the most feminine woman I knew--until the fighting started".

Women who leaned into stereotypes of the time to position themselves close to the enemy without being detected. Women who helped the resistance by gathering intel from bars and bakeries and city squares where Axis forces were known to gather. Women who collected intel and carried messages to and from the front lines all while wearing dresses, their intel concealed in shopping baskets or on their own persons. Women who were viewed as weak or passive, women who were never believed to be a threat because of their feminity and outward appearances.

Women who were underestimated just like Elain.

[nausikaaa]

i love all of this so much and might end up writing a fic after all, because now this concept is living rent free in my head! once my schedule clears up, i hope you won't mind if i utilise some of your wonderful ideas, will full credit of course!

i really wish i had the motivation to write rn, because i have an idea for a post-canon Dracula fic where the characters have to deal with world war one. like, how do you even cope with thinking you saved all those lives, only for the entire western world to go to absolute shit just 20-ish years later? if only Bram Stoker had known what was coming.

anyway, i find it so interesting to consider what certain characters would do in that situation.

depending on when he was born, Quincey Jr could be just old enough to enlist or get drafted. or honestly, he might just want to be a hero like his parents, and lie about his age. and let's be real, that boy has some latent vampire powers that would give him an edge.

Jonathan has good survival instincts, an ear for languages, and the ability and willingness to scale sheer walls with a knife between his teeth if necessary. Mina has a really impressive memory for conversations and schedules, a love of technology, experience resisting what is essentially supernatural interrogation, and probably some vampire side effects of her own. both of them know shorthand and have plenty of experience with life or death situations. they would kick ass as spies and wireless operators.

Jack and Van Helsing would have to cease the medical malpractice to be actual army doctors. maybe learn about shell shock and call up Jonathan about that old "brain fever" diagnosis of his.

and what would Arthur even do? what did lords do during WW1? try to keep his friends out of harm's way? use his seat in government to try and end the war? grapple with the fact that lordships are falling out of favour and the world is moving on into a modern era without him?

i just find it fun to ponder.