The story of Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi’s latest movie, Holy Spider, which garnered a lot of attention at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, is based on the serial murders that took place in the Iranian city of Mashhad in the 2000s. Saeed Hanai, who is the subject of the film, killed 16 female sex workers in Mashhad between July 2000 and August 2001, and was executed in April 2002. The story of the man known as the “Spider Killer” has been the subject of three films: Maziar Bahari’s original 2003 film And Along Came a Spider, The Killer Spider by Ebrahim Irajzad in 2020, and finally Holy Spider, directed by Abbasi in 2022.

Over the last 20 years, there have been multiple incidents of serial murders in Iran that have been striking not only for the horrific nature of the crimes involved, but also for how they were received by the Iranian public. One such case was that of Gholamreza Khoshroo, 32, who raped and murdered nine women before being caught and hanged in 1997. Another was the 2005 case of Mohammed Bijeh, a 22-year-old who raped and killed 41 boys.

However, Holy Spider, beyond addressing Hanai’s criminal case, offers references to the Iranian social and political contexts. Hanai’s case is one of the most controversial and mysterious criminal cases in Iran’s judicial history after the Islamic Revolution, and is still surrounded by a lot of speculation and doubt.

Although Holy Spider has the tone and theme of a crime-thriller, it answers the “whodunnit” question at the very beginning. With the identity of the murderer made known, the director creates tension by exploring a much different and larger question that lies behind the case. Hanai’s murders represent a much larger problem and dilemma. We realize the array of reactions to the murders among the public and authority figures, and the social picture that can be derived from these becomes the film’s main subject.

Holy Spider is a reflection of Iranian women’s position in society as it addresses the difficulties women face in all their quests and efforts. This is also the case for the film’s heroine, a journalist who is investigating the main case and is held back at almost every moment and on every turn of her research, simply because she is a woman. The director uncovers the tensions present in Iranian society and stemming from its contradictory nature, where women can be highly trained professionals such as doctors and engineers but are also subject to strict controls over what they wear and how they look in public.

As Abbasi stated, although the film is based on Saeed Hanai’s murders, it is not a documentary, so it does not adhere to the realities of the events. The purpose of the film is not to inform us about the serial murder case with a documentary-like approach. What makes the film distinctively insightful is that it analyzes Saeed Hanai’s character on the basis of what exactly motivates him to kill by especially analyzing the religious and political beliefs that influence his decisions and actions.

Roya Karimi Majd is a veteran journalist and reporter for Radio Farda with a focus on societal issues, including women’s rights. During the making of And Along Came a Spider, she worked with Maziar Bahari in researching the details and fallout from the Hanai case from different angles. Karimi interviewed Hanai and recalls that “Saeed Hanai was a very simple and honest person but not very intelligent.” “In a lot of murder trial footage, or even when watching films about him, you sometimes feel you’re watching an actor: someone whose every movement has been planned to influence the judge’s verdict. But in the interview with Hanai, I never felt he was hiding anything or lying.”

Hanai was remarkably candid in the interview about not just how he had gone about the killings but his motivations for doing so. Karimi says he also sometimes brought up seemingly unrelated matters that gave some clue as to his psyche: most importantly, having been the victim of violent abuse from his mother as a child. The discussion was not included in the final cut of the film, but Hanai told Karimi that his mother used to try to bite off chunks of his flesh, and his body always showed the marks left by her fingernails.

It seems that some social groups want to believe that Hanai is telling the truth and that he killed the sex workers for religious reasons as this scenario is more in line with the Iran they describe. Yes, Iran has problems in terms of human rights and women’s rights, and it cannot be said to be a democratic and free country. The whole world knows this! However, the screenwriter, like the opposition to any government or regime anywhere, is solely concerned with sending a specific message to international viewers, and not with the truth about Iranian society and politics.

The rapists and traitorous men in this movie all have religious and government profiles. For example, all such men wear an agate ring, which the director repeatedly highlights with multiple zooms. In the Holy Spider, men of all levels and positions in Iran look at women in a derogatory manner or as commodities to meet their sexual needs: filmmaker, hotel worker, police, and judge – every man in every position has some sexual disorder! Some get satisfaction by humiliating women, some by raping them, and some by killing them. Iranian society on the whole is presented as disturbingly sick, and it comes as little surprise that someone like Saeed Hanai would emerge from it.

Of course, Hanai’s story could be a compelling subject for a crime, police, or horror movie, but the way this story is handled is ideological. At the same time, it should be noted that the Iranian regime is to blame for how easy it is to persuade the audience of this line of thinking. In several scenes of the movie, the judge tries to deny the connection between Saeed Hanai’s actions and his religious and revolutionary past, and to convince the audience that his decision was an arbitrary act that was not accepted by the government and the law. However, his efforts fail, and based on the viewers’ knowledge of the regime’s existing views on women, the viewers feel that Hanai’s actions were fully in line with the regime’s constant preaching of “commanding good and forbidding evil.”

When it becomes clear that a state oppresses a part of its people – in this case, women – with the excuse of protecting their “chastity” or “decency” by interfering with what they can wear, who they can have relations with and how, etc., it is easy for the audience to think that in such an atmosphere, any individual may find it in themself to “educate” or “cleanse” society of “corruption.” In this way, the audience easily establishes a connection between Hanai and the Iranian regime that enabled his abominable actions, and, in turn, it identifies Hanai’s actions with the Iranian regime.

The market for facial recognition technology (FRT) is rapidly growing as automation continues to take the place of human capabilities. How widespread is the adoption of FRT? How is FRT utilized? What threats does FRT pose to privacy rights and civil liberties? How does FRT affect human rights? How far is too far? Today, FRT can recognize not just the identity of a person, but also decipher their psychology through analysis of their facial expressions. Increasingly, experts and activists voice concerns over methods of data collection, the exploitation of its use, and what ethical issues may arise from the adoption of such technology.

Identified, Tracked, and Profiled offers a critical examination of both the uses and issues that FRT poses while providing an analysis of its global market. Moving beyond FRT as a tool and the rising global demand, Peter Dauvergne shines a light on the anti-FRT movement. He provides information acquired through interviews with expert analysts and activists to provide an insight into the influence of the movement in different parts of the world, including Western democracies, developing countries, and autocratic regimes.

There are indeed many that are full of indignation towards the issues raised by the use of FRT, and Identified, Tracked and Profiled highlights their efforts and addresses how some corporate and state supporters are responding to the backlash.

Recognizing FRT as a source of power, and, therefore, a highly sought out commodity by powerful ruling actors and state-firm alliances, Identified, Tracked, and Profiled showcases the unequal capacity and challenges that activists face in their fight against the creeping normalization of FRT. Yet, it also attempts to show that these movements are not entirely powerless against this development by highlighting the importance of political culture and cooperation within social movements.

Constituting an important element in understanding and dealing with FRT, the global political economy of facial recognition is thoroughly dissected in Part III. Here, the author examines the corporate politics of FRT and the dynamics that are causing its globalization. With China being at the forefront of the utilization of FRT, Dauvergne dedicates a chapter into the everyday politics of FRT in China.

Part IV concludes with Dauvergne’s remarks about the future of FRT in terms of its stance against the growing size, power, and scope of its opposition.

In a timely exploration of the forces for and against FRT, Identified, Tracked, and Profiled is a worthwhile read for those who are interested in civil society activism to prevent the globalization and normalization of new technologies, and students, scholars, and policymakers who are searching for a broad reflection on the power of transnational social movements of resistance towards new technologies.

Interested readers who wish to take a look at Identified, Tracked, and Profiled may do so online for free through Elgaronline.com, as the book is open access.

Peter Dauvergne, Identified, Tracked, and Profiled (Edward Elgar, 2022), ISBN: 978 1 80392 588 2, 144 pages

Written by Dilara Özer

Humans are neither biologically open nor resistant to all diseases, nor do they have equal opportunities in terms of protecting their health, staying at home, isolation, treatment, and rehabilitation for various socioeconomic reasons. Although measures such as staying at home, which have been implemented all over the world, seem to be meaningful especially for the middle classes with fixed income and job guarantee, the pandemic will predictably cause many self-employed people and workers to lose their jobs and will completely deprive them of their income. As socioeconomic inequalities seriously affect access to health services and the likelihood of getting infected will vary in direct correlation to people’s socioeconomic status in society, this cycle will increase exponentially during the pandemic.

Increase in Unemployment Will Lead to Poverty

Who will be most affected by the current crisis? According to a recent analysis by International Labor Organization (ILO), full or partial lockdowns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are affecting approximately 2.7 billion workers globally, currently representing 81 percent of the world’s workforce. In the second quarter of 2020, working time equivalent to 195 million full-time workers will be lost, and the workers will seriously pay for this loss. One billion 250 million workers work in the sectors that are at “serious and destructive” risk due to the pandemic. Similarly, according to this report, craftsmen and artisans working on their own, and small business owners will suffer a great loss. Nearly 25 million people are expected to remain unemployed till the end of the year, and a contraction of three per cent in the world economy is expected at best, six percent with a moderate estimate and 10 percent if worse.

The pandemic has led many people to work remotely. However, everyone is not equal in terms of work conditions. Workers are exposed to different risks depending on their income and whether their economic sector is under lockdown. Some of the people working in low-income jobs such as healthcare, shipping, transportation, and critical supply chains (food, medicine, delivery, primary industry, and services) continue to work. Employees in these sectors are exposed to a higher risk of infection since they cannot work from home.

On the other hand, many low-income workers, especially those working in the service sector, cannot work from home, and the work in these sectors is on halt because of the lockdown. A study in the U.S. shows that there is a close link between the opportunity to work from home and the income of the job. According to this, only 9.2 percent of workers in the lowest quarter of the income segment (lower 25 percent) are eligible to work from home. In comparison, this rate is 20.1 percent in the second quarter income segment, 37.3 percent in the third quarter segment, and among those who have the highest income, the rate is 61.5 percent.

Though staying at home slows the spread of the virus, it’s not an option for some. A general lockdown means unemployment and loss of income for millions working in low-income jobs. When the rescue programs launched by governments are considered, it is evident that the share allocated to these segments is incomparably lower than the percentage allocated to save capital. Governments rescue programs continue to prioritize capital and allocate scarce resources to saving big businesses. In the coming global economic crisis, these programs may deepen inequalities even further.

A contraction in the economy and loss of jobs directly affects the lowest socioeconomic group and creates irreparable rifts in the social structure. Therefore, it is essential to implement practices prioritizing the elderly, the disabled, widows and orphans, unemployed, and under-skilled as well as temporary workers. However, the impact of economic inequality is not limited to this; socioeconomic factors also have direct effects on the manifestations of the disease.

Inequality in Disease and Health

A closer look at the data provided by inequality studies shows that health and disease are not distributed equally among people. Generally, diseases or illnesses of the wealthy and the poor are different from each other. Problems like addiction, chronic diseases, occupational and professional diseases, work accidents, and infant deaths have a direct relationship with poverty. We also see that serious crises, such as the coronavirus pandemic, increase the health burden of those at the bottom in the social pyramid, causing further disastrous effects such as violence, crime, and suicide.

Socioeconomic inequality appears to be the first phenomenon directly affected whenever a large-scale crisis occurs. This is also true for the COVID-19 pandemic. This crisis should be carefully managed for economically poor and precarious parts of societies.

In the article titled Income Inequality and Health, Jennifer M. Mellor and Jeffrey D. Milyo, show the link between socioeconomic inequalities and addiction, psychological disorders, and chronic diseases through empirical data. Similarly, William A. Vega and William M. Sribney find that life expectancy of the top 20 per cent was 5 years longer than the bottom 20 per cent thirty years ago – now it has risen to 12 years for men and 14 years for women.

In their report for the International Food Policy Research Institute, Rob Vos, Will Martin, and David Laborde estimate that a one per cent contraction in the global economy will increase the number of the poor and also the number of people without food security by two percent (i.e. 14 million people). The world economy is expected to shrink by three per cent at best and six to seven per cent with a more reasonable estimate. This situation poses a threat in accessing food, and this pandemic will push more than 50 million people in the world to absolute poverty.

In a note titled The Social Impact of COVID-19 published on April 6 by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, it states that if correct social policies are not applied, inequality, exclusion, discrimination, and global unemployment in the medium and long terms will increase. The note highlights that comprehensive social protection systems should be implemented, basic income security should be ensured, and social capacity should be enhanced. In another report, the need for sharing responsibilities and addressing the problem in a multidimensional way is also expressed.

Why the Pandemic Kills Afro-Americans and Poor People

The poor population, having limited or unqualified access to health services even under normal circumstances, constitutes the most vulnerable populace in times of a pandemic. Newspapers in the U.S. have been covering news and analyses that the pandemic has become more prevalent among Afro-Americans in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas and mortality rates are higher.

According to data published by several states and major cities reported in the New York Times on April 7, 2020, the numbers and ratios of infection and death are quite high among the Afro-American population in the United States. A family physician and epidemiologist, Camara Phyllis Jones, explains this to be a result of unequal wealth distribution. The main reason behind this is thought to be the structural racism in America.

Afro-Americans are not the only ones suffering from this inequality, but also other poor people. As stated above, poor people have more chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and lung failure that can cause complications due to getting COVID-19. Since their access to health services is already low, losing jobs will cause further devastation for these people in the near future. These socioeconomic inequalities sharply uncovered by the coronavirus in the U.S. more or less reflect a general trend in the rest of the world.

The Cycle of Debt

Since the 1980s, the share of the highest income group in the world contributing to economic growth has increased continuously. This has led to an increasingly comfortable life for the upper classes. It became evident once more in a recent study by Atif Mian, Ludwig Straub, and Amir Sufi that the upper class gets more shares from the economic resources and income. In other words, while the financial wealth of a minority increases, the financial debt of the masses increases as well. There is a very close connection between the two.   

A similar situation is seen in states, which borrow continuously to maintain public services and order. The wealth accumulated in the hands of the group at the top constitutes the primary source of these debts. A significant proportion of the taxes collected by the state from the public to carry out public services goes to pay the interest on these debts. Thus, once again, it functions as an element that increases the wealth of those at the top. For this reason, many countries have reached unpatched deficits in public budgets that have been financed by debt in recent years.