We have met a number of people over the years who managed to escape from Iran the Shah fell. They have all been highly educated people who left with nothing but succeeded because of their faith and determination.
The Shah was “westernizing” Iran at a rapid pace which was a very good thing. He of course ran into brutal opposition from the Muslims and had to use brutality to answer. The leftist idiots at the college that I was going to supported the Muslims of course. Any country that is taken over by a Muslim regime is probably not coming back to sanity any time soon, even one that is populated by Persians who had a long history of being rational thinkers.
It wasn’t just muslim hardliners who brought down the Shah, it was a coalition of muslims and socialist/communist students.
The muslims were just smart enough to be go after the socialists as soon as they got power, knowing they would be rivals for power.