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It is 100 years since the exotic dancer and legendary \u2018femme fatale\u2019 Mata Hari was executed by a French firing squad for passing secrets to the Germans during World War One. She was described at the time as the \u2018greatest woman spy of the century\u2019. But many now see Mata Hari as a convenient scapegoat, condemned merely for her unconventional lifestyle.

Bridget Kendall discusses the myths and realities surrounding women in espionage with Julie Wheelwright, programme director of non-fiction writing at City, University of London, and author of The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage; Tammy Proctor, Professor of History at Utah State University and author of Female Intelligence: Women and Espionage in the First World War; and Hanneke Boonstra, a Dutch journalist who is writing an official blog about Mata Hari as part of this year\u2019s centenary commemorations in the Netherlands.

(Photo: Mata Hari. Credit: Getty Images)