>people being free to choose the way want to live their lives
Do you think this is what the Iranians choose?
>There is high voter turnout
Are you claiming Iran has free democratic elections?
Just to put this in some perspective - Iran has an extreme shia muslim regime. Following the laws of shia islam is strictly enforced (don't wear a hijab? get beaten and thrown in jail. Homosexual? get publicly hanged from a crane). Now, how many Iranians do you think self-identify as shia muslims? The answer is around 30%. And this was before the recent country-wide mass demonstrations against the shia regime. Realistically maybe 10-20% of Iranians support this violent authoritarian regime.
Oh and we didn't even talk about the opression of women, which are, you know, about 50% of the population.
I think it's pretty funny how contrarians from the West will whitewash anything as long as it opposes what they believe is wrong with the West. You see it with the extreme right and Russia, and the extreme left and Iran. Ironically these 2 regimes are closest allies.
It is possible to have completely above-the-board, fair elections and wind up with a set of politicians who work expressly against the interests of the people. I hope you don't consider that a point in dispute.
Who knows but saying that a western liberal democracy is the yardstick for governing all people is very flawed - look at Afghanistan - it imploded overnight once the US pulled out.
What about Saudi Arabia or the UAE ???.
I don't see the West complaining about them because they do our bidding ???.
Nobody ever claimed Iran has freedom of religion - they tolerate some as mentioned but Islamic offshoots like the Bahai, Ahmadiyya and the Alawites who claim some link to mainstream Islam and further revelations after the prophet died are definitely not tolerated.
Saudi Arabic will sentence you to death if you are deemed to be an apostate (denying Islam or converting to another religion - also no proselyting if you a Christian visiting/staying there).
That's only convincing if you ignore the mass rioting that happens every other election cycle when the popular liberal (relative to Iran, eg he still hates America, but thinks maybe women should be given more freedom) candidate who promises reform gets removed from the ballot.
Having seen the rioting and resulting crackdowns in person, it's absurd to say that the people are particularly happy with the state of things.
Like Jan 06th in the US where a fairly significant chunk of voters still believe that the election was stolen ?
I think there is liberal minority of young people but reckon the majority of Iranians were not happy with the Pahlavi regime either that the CIA engineered on them.
And I did mention that the clerics needs to approve all election candidates btw.
Carrying water for tyrannical regimes while eating up the regime's propaganda and replying to any other information with whataboutisms doesn't make you balanced. It makes you, at best, a useful idiot. Not all too different from those supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine citing Russian propaganda about how NATO was preparing to invade Russia.
