Yeah exactly. If there was no fertile ground for religious conservatism an Islamic theocracy would have never been able to form in Iran.

People do this with Afghanistan too they show those photos of the elite urbanites and pretend like the country was somehow a progressive haven in the desert. But in reality 99% of the people lived in rural communities in poverty where religion dictated their lives. They knew very well that the elites in the cities were oppressing them. It wasn’t hard for the Taliban to rally support for their fight against the elites and Western influence.