She served in the army of Charles XII of Sweden for two years during the Great Northern War, and married a woman.
They were discovered by a vicar from Livonia, a refugee from the advancing Russian army, and her employer then ordered her to flee dressed in male clothing.
This was not a love match: Maja Kijhl was pregnant at the wedding and needed a man to acknowledge the child to avoid the stigma of illegitimacy which was forced upon unmarried mothers at the time.
Kijhl reportedly discovered the biological gender of Haritu a couple of days after the wedding and asked her not to return after the army campaign she was committed to join.
Göta Hovrätt, for example, quoted the legend of Blenda, and stated that if Anna Jönsdotter had posed as a male in a patriotic wish to serve king and country, rather than out of sinful curiosity, she should be given mercy: it also recommended body search to establish any possible hermaphrodite, which was a common procedure in these cases.
This law was however not passed, as it was the official policy of the Swedish courts to remain silent about homosexual acts, as talk of them was believed to spread their practices.