Firuzeh Mahmoudi is the founder and director of United for Iran, an independent nonprofit based in San Francisco that works for civil liberties in Iran. Mahmoudi founded the organization after the 2009 protests in Iran, where millions of young people protested the presidential election and were brutally suppressed. Mahmoudi organized concurrent rallies in 110 cities in support of the Iranian protesters—the largest global day of support for Iran in history. United for Iran was born from this effort and has since developed new technology like the app Hamdam, which helps Iranians avoid the morality police.