An Indian student Geetakshi Arora has been awarded the inaugural Noor Inayat Khan Prize for her excellent dissertation on “Goddess Myths in Graphic Novels: Reimagining Indian Feminity”.
•    Currently, Geetakshi is a post-graduate student of the South Asia Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
•    The award has been instituted in the memory of Noor Inayat Khan, famous World War II heroine.
•    The award was established by Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust that promote the message of peace, non-violence and religious and racial harmony
•    The award consists of 1,000 pounds and certificate.
•    Noor Inayat Khan (also known as “Nora Baker” and “Madeleine”) was of Indian Sufi origin and believed in non-violence and religious harmony.
•    Born in Moscow to an Indian father, Hazrat Inayat Khan and an American mother, Ora Ray Baker. Her father was great-grandson of Tipu Sultan.
•    Thus, she was a direct descendant of Tipu Sultan, the e 18th century ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore who had refused to submit to British rule and was killed in battle in 1799.
•    During the Second World War, she had worked as British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent. She was famously known as Spy Princess.
•    She was the first female radio operator to be sent into occupied France to aid the French Resistance to the Nazis.
•    She was eventually betrayed, captured and killed in Dachau Concentration Camp by the Gestapo at the age of 30. Her last word was “Liberte”