U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Iranian-American women’s rights activist and journalist Masih Alinejad on Monday February 4 and thanked her for her bravery.

Alinejad started anti-hijab movements, such as My Stealthy Freedoms, which resonated in Iran in 2017 and 2018 when many women removed their headscarves in public and many of them were arrested.

She started her journalism career in Iran in 2001 but left the country in 2009 and first settled in Britain before moving to the United States.

Deputy Spokesperson of the State Department Robert Palladino in announcing the meeting, tweeted that Pompeo “underscored American commitment to help amplify the voices of the Iranian people, and to condemn the Iranian regime for its 40 years of human rights abuses.”

Alinejad also tweeted that her meeting with Pompeo lasted 35 minutes and said, “I tried my utmost to be the voice of all those who put their trust in me”. She added that she highlighted three areas of concern in the meeting. First, “Many Iranians want an end to the Islamic Republic. Opposition voices should be heard”. Second, International community should focus on 40 years of human rights violations by the regime, and third, the Trump administration travel ban hurts human rights activists and students, not the regime.