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| "Mata Hari" by Isaac Israels, 1915 Kroller-Muller Museum |
Many American women (and the Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico) are proud to wear tee shirts proclaiming they are NASTY - the kind of woman that scares the pants off of men like Donald J. Trump and the GOP in general (Hillary Clinton; Nancy Pelosi; Michelle Obama).
After reading this review of an exhibit coming in the Netherlands, birthplace of Margaretha Zelle a/k/a Mata Hari, it seems to me that Zelle was reviled and feared by many men (and some women) not because she was a master spy but because she was a NASTY woman: sexually free, independent, capable of supporting herself in style without depending upon ANY male, assertive, intelligent. She was perceived as a threat by many because she did not conform to the norms of the day. Zelle was 41 when she was "executed" by a firing squad in France, after having been convicted of being a German spy.
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| Mata Hari, 1914. Source: rarehistoricalphotos.com Regal, beautiful, threatening to men. |
From The New York Times
Nina Siegal, October 13, 2017
Femme Fatale, Fallen Woman, Spy: Looking for the Real Mata Hari
LEEUWARDEN, the Netherlands — In December 1915, Margaretha Zelle, the woman known to all the world as the exotic dancer Mata Hari, was traveling by ship from one of her lovers in Paris to another in The Hague. The international sex symbol was famous for provocative routines in a nude body stocking with a bejeweled bra and golden headdress. Sometimes she would tell people she was a Javanese princess or the daughter of an Indian temple dancer, but only rarely would she reveal that she was Dutch.It was the middle of World War I and her circuitous route took her through British waters, where the authorities stopped the boat to question those on board.
After looking at Zelle’s papers, and searching her possessions, they made a note: No evidence of anything had been found on her person, but she was nevertheless a “bold sort of woman who is not above suspicion.” In the charged atmosphere of the war, this was enough for the authorities to call for her arrest if she ever tried to enter the United Kingdom again. A copy of their report was sent to the French secret service, where it landed on the desk of a French military intelligence officer, George Ladoux.
Ladoux, convinced that Zelle was a spy, became determined to catch her in an act of espionage. He recruited her to work for French intelligence, sure that she was a double agent for the Germans.
In early 1917, Ladoux later arrested and interrogated Zelle, and garnered what he took as a confession: She admitted to taking money from the Germans, though she firmly denied having ever provided them with any useful espionage. On Oct. 14, Mata Hari was executed by firing squad. Newspaper reports described her as refusing to wear a blindfold and blowing kisses to the soldiers who raised their rifles against her.
