According to the petition, which had been signed by about 13,000 people till Monday, the Bank of England is redesigning its £50 note. Apart from the Queen, only three women have featured on the note. Politicians and historians want World War II hero Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan on a redesigned 50-pound currency note.
“I am absolutely delighted that the story of Noor Inayat Khan has inspired so many people and that she has become an icon. Noor was an extraordinary war heroine,” said Shrabani Basu, the author of Khan’s biography ‘Spy Princess’ and founder-chair of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust.
Noor Inayat Khan, the first Muslim heroine of the Second World War, was a British spy who was sneaked into France to help the Resistance.
She was captured and tortured by the Gestapo but revealed nothing and was put to death in 1944. Her bravery won her a posthumous George Cross.
After criticism of the lack of women on other notes, Bank chiefs will be under pressure to choose a female figurehead to sit opposite the Queen.
