You're picturing Saudi Arabia. Iran actually has a rather long history of liberalism going back to the early 20th century, and arguably before then. And you do realize, that the Iranian revolution, which put the current regime in power, happened partly due to the US helping overthrow a democratically elected government in favor of a puppet monarchy right? It's not their fault they're now under Islamic theocracy, as they actually tried to continue social and governmental liberalism progress after the Constitutional Revolution and Mossadegh era, and then tried again recently as few years ago. Remember 1906?! 1953? 1979.