Before the 1979 revolution, Mahshid Amirshahi’s name was unknown in the field of politics, but she was already known for her writing. Years later, after the publication of her book In the Presence, she was recognized as an intellectual and dubbed the “only honest narrator of the revolution.” In one of the few interviews she gave, when asked by German newspaper with Deutsche Welle why she openly supported Bakhtiar at the peak of the revolution and opposed the Islamists and other revolutionaries, she said: “I think it was due to my acquaintance with the history of my country as well as other countries to some extent.
