The date was 15 October 1917, and 12 French soldiers prepared themselves to execute a spy who had been proven to be disloyal in a court of law. When the time came and they got ready, the spy who was forty-one years old at the time, didn’t cry for help or try to prove innocence, but gave a flying kiss to the soldiers who were going to open fire at her in order to kill her.

The spy was Mata Hari, often known to be one of the most shrewd spies the world has seen, and a perfect example of what is known as ‘honey trap’ in the modern era. She was known to use her charm and sensuousness to talk men into giving out national secrets.

But who exactly was Mata Hari and how did she end up becoming a spy?

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The truth is that Mata Hari never existed. It was a name and identity made up by Margaretha Zelle from Netherlands. Her father made wise investments which gave him good financial returns and the family was living comfortably till the time her father not only went bankrupt, but also left the family only to marry another woman. Margaretha was just thirteen at that time.

By the age of eighteen, she came across an advertisement in a local newspaper through which Dutch Colonial Army Captain Rudolf MacLeod declared that he was looking for a wife. They were married soon after she got in touch with him and the couple shifted to Java, an island of modern-day Indonesia.

She had two children with the captain but the marriage was extremely abusive with MacLeod beating up his wife who was twenty years younger, blaming her for the lack of a promotion and also openly keeping a mistress. He also ended up giving her syphilis and her two children were born extremely sick. While her son died young, her daughter’s custody was given to her father, but even she ended up dying soon after.

Margaretha became disillusioned with the concept of marriage and while still in Java ended up studying the traditional dance. That’s when Mata Hari came into existence and by 1897, she wrote back home saying that Mata Hari (meaning eye of the day in the local language) was her stage name.

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In 1905, Mata Hari performed for the first time in Paris at an Asian art museum. The capital’s wealthy and elite were there in big numbers and they were completely enchanted by Mata Hari’s erotic performance. She danced in what was to become her signature, which was a barely-there, dazzling beaded bra. While she could have been booked for public nudity, she played her cards right by portraying herself as a princess of the East and her sensuous dance as a temple dance which was a part of her tradition.

This meant that she was able to pass off her erotic dance performances as moved by culture as well as tradition, and her fame grew all across the city as she performed completely sold-out shows. She interacted with a crowd that came with a lot of clout and included not only wealthy businessman, but also men with strong political connections such as military officials.

So when exactly did this sultry dancer become a spy?

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Like so many things about Mata Hari which remain shrouded in history, one can’t put a certain date as to when she started spying or if she truly was a spy.

However, there were reports that she was visited by the German consul to Amsterdam in 1915 who handed her 20,000 francs! She later admitted to taking the money but only as a repayment for the furs and jewels she had lost in Germany while never actually spying on any official for information to be given to the Germans.

This didn’t stop the French authorities from issuing an arrest warrant against her in 1917. More than anything, she saw her lifestyle being lost when she was thrown into one of the most inhumane prisons which was infested by rats and where she was not even given soap for personal hygiene.

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Even today, when historians and academics study the charges against Mata Hari, they can’t help but notice that the claims against her seemed vague and mostly moved by the fact that she was an ‘immoral’ woman. Even the messages that were used as evidence against her seem to have been doctored, especially because the handler who submitted them was also charged with espionage, but a little too late for Mata Hari to be saved.

Mata Hari was executed the same year that she was arrested. The day she was taken to be executed, she refused to be tied to the pole and moved with dignity till the time she was open-fired at.

At the end of it all, one can’t help but wonder if Mata Hari was just another political pawn who was an easy target simply because of her profession, but at the same time, it was the mystery she was surrounded by that probably made it extremely tough to have concrete evidence against her.