Femmes Combattantes – Sept héroïnes de notre Histoire

A story of the intelligence and courage of seven remarkable women from World War II through today,
told by a French Army reservist.

Why did Noor, an Indian princess, enlist in the British Secret Service in 1942 rather than wait for the
war to end? What call did Susan Travers hear to leave her aristocratic life and follow De Gaulle’s men
to Bir Hakeim? How did nurse Geneviève de Galard choose to share the suffering of the wounded in
the hell of Dien Bien Phu? And Lily? What passion drove this Soviet woman, less than twenty years
old, to go and defy Hitler’s aviators over Stalingrad, just like the poet Hannah who fled anti-Semitic
Hungary to return as a British secret agent at the moment when the Nazis invaded? Why did Jihane the
Kurd give up her life as a woman to fight Daesh, knowing there was a price on her head? What
triggered the student Cassiopée to join the French army and become a spy as part of Operation
Barkhane in Mali, crisscrossing jihadist territory in defiance of all dangers?

About the author: Initially a business lawyer, Marie-Laure Buisson worked at the European
Parliament and was Deputy General Delegate of the Veolia Environnement Foundation. Attracted by
the army and its values, in 2011 she became an auditor at the Institute of Advanced Studies in National
Defence, where she discovered the Foreign Legion. She is now a Legionnaire of Honour 1st Class,
Colonel of the Citizen Reserve of the Air Force and godmother of the 4th Foreign Regiment. She is the
founder of Fondation Marie-Laure Buisson, which supports military personnel and their families, in
particular those wounded in combat and the families of soldiers who died for France or died in service.
She serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Battle Monuments Foundation.
Femmes Combattantes received the French Army literary award for outstanding contributions to
military literature, the Erwan Bergot Prize.