Somehow I seem to remember that the Shah was outside the country seeking medical treatment when he finally lost his grip on power....
He was forced out by Jimmah. Well known fact at the time that Jimmah pulled the props out from under the Shah. To this day I have RATS tell me "Well the Shah just treated his people so terrible that he had to do it".
Of course, under the Shah, women were treated as equals. The country was fairly modern. The aftermath of the Carter debacle was to allow radical Islam to finally get a foothold in a large country. We have seen what that has led to. Yeah, we had some stuff with the Islamists before, but Carter allowed the flood gates of terror to open. President Reagan stopped them for a time with his bombing of Libya. But when Clinton came in they were emboldened. W got serious and kept them at bay after 911, but now weakness is upon us again.