Untold stories about the bodyguards of artistic figures

Theater News Base: “Mojtaba Parhizkar”, who has 18 years of experience in the police force and has been working professionally in the protection of commercial, residential and office complexes for 6 years, has many requests to introduce a bodyguard.

“Unfortunately, some thugs or people with big bodies have created a page on Instagram and asked to be accompanied by the actors at the ceremony, and then they took photos and took their position as bodyguards,” he said of the problems of personal bodyguards in cyberspace. “They have stabilized.”

Parhizkar emphasizes: “Our team specializes in providing guards for neighborhoods and commercial and administrative complexes; However, in order to maintain and maintain order at concerts, conferences and special events in hotels, we are also asked to provide a security and care team. Bodyguard work is practically illegal in Iran, which is why we have focused more on the protection of places. “Someone may be selling well in a store and need people to bring order to them, which is why they come to us.”

Regarding the salaries of the security forces, he says: “Usually the salaries of the security forces are paid by the hour; From 250 to 800 thousand tomans per hour, which is based on the agreement. This price also depends on your face and reputation; “Especially if the person has acted in two scenes of the film, but the basis of our salary is between 200,000 and 400,000 tomans per hour, because a force may have to stand in a fixed place for 12 hours, so it suffers a lot of pressure in one day.”

The pious person adds: “Everyone enters this field because of his appearance, height and size. There is no authority to educate or train these people. On the other hand, an institution should take responsibility for this area and recognize the companies and institutions of protection and care so that if one day something goes wrong, the employers will be involved in filing a lawsuit. “Because we have a license from the police force, people come to us with confidence.”

“Because the bodyguard profession is not legal in Iran, there are no specific statistics on how many are currently working as bodyguards, but in the case of security agencies, there are a number of law enforcement retirees who have been senior officers after reaching the age of service,” he said. They can get licenses and establish protection-care institutions. “It is very difficult to get such permits, and not even everyone, not even anyone working in the police force, is given one.”

He also cites customer requests in the pre-corona era: “Before the corona, there were more requests for bodyguards. For example, someone wanted to invite local artists to open his gold shop and asked us to accompany each person from inside the parking lot to the end of the ceremony to take care of the artists when taking photos and signing. “We also had cases where the bodyguard asked to go to a funeral or birthday party, but I prefer to take more responsibility for preserving and regulating the physics of the collection.”

Parhizkar also explains the difference between a celebrity bodyguard and a political figure: “I myself spent a year guarding personalities in a military barracks. Political figures are ranked based on the type of activities and job sensitivities that require their particular type of care. A judge may have a bodyguard who is preferably equipped with a firearm, but a minister may have several bodyguards and be escorted by several cars. The issue of protecting artistic figures is quite different from that of political figures. Of course, all this depends on the discretion of the protection and monitoring devices of the complex. The protection of artistic personalities is superficial and has more of a theatrical aspect, which is why body and stature are more important in the protection of celebrities. Actors are more likely to use bodyguards, who are somehow considered virtual horns themselves. “Of course, the number of these people is limited, and they are doing this in order to get more attention.”

“At the beginning of film festivals, the demand for security and accompanying teams increases,” he said. Usually, ceremonial teams are used to protect the ceremony, because the general public is not allowed to enter the palace of festivals such as the Fajr Film Festival, but there is a request for this in public cinemas. “On the other hand, because the security team has to accompany the artist from the front of the car to the stage, people think that the actor has a personal bodyguard, but this is not the case, and the bodyguard accompanies him as far as he is assigned.”

I ask the pious person, has there ever been a problem for your team’s security forces during the mission? “Most injuries happen at concerts,” he says. The increase in population causes the uniform of the security forces to be torn or injured under the pressure of the population, but considering that we have worked in the police force, we give the necessary training to these people so that both the celebrity and the actor are not harmed and the bodyguard has less problems. “People in that scene will not be harmed.”

He explains what a bodyguard should look like: “Public opinion thinks that all bodyguards are thugs, or so-called grown-up neighborhoods that do not have a good reputation. These cases are due to the inefficiency and lack of media awareness as well as their lack of information. If we have a precise definition of the type of work of these people, the level of public awareness will be much higher. The first characteristic for someone who wants to take care of protection and care is to have a proper IQ and IQ. The next feature is the height, which should be above 190 cm. A bodyguard must be trained in one of the sports, especially self-defense. They should also be inquired about by legal authorities and obtain a criminal record. “The police force has provided instructions for the use of forces in the form of ceremonies, protection and guarding with a diploma or higher.”

“Based on my experience in the police force, I will interview and select the volunteers,” he said in response to the fact that you also take IQ or IQ tests from the recruits.

The pious man has always been concerned with the protection of projects and buildings by patrolling the protected area during his shift, because the active forces in these places do not receive the necessary training. Project Three families make a living.

He believes that with rising inflation and the creation of class levels for the deciles, crime and theft rates will naturally rise, leading to social harm. For this reason, commercial and residential complexes need more protection.

Hossein Rahimi, the police chief of Greater Tehran, had previously stated that there was no such thing as a “bodyguard” and that there was no such thing in the private sector. There are companies that are legally licensed, such as law enforcement agencies that help police and police stations to secure neighborhoods and public places, but it is not right to have something called a personal bodyguard, and we do not. But there are still some people working in cyberspace in this field and earning money this way, and so far no institution has been in charge of it.