Young yes, 65% under the age of 30. Sophisticated? Absolutely not. Politically, most are even naive. I would guess you are making your assessment on the young Iranian ex-pats you have met or seen in action overseas and not the 99% or so of the Joe Six pack youth inside Iran.
Even the students are very "unsophisticated" and even what there is to be found is skin deep. That's where so many analysts go wrong. Specially in situational scenarios they create. Simple literacy at a national level (forget national level education including any international knowledge) was only just over a generation old by the time the Revolution happened.
This also a reason for all the conflicting "solutions" being submitted to governments by their intel agencies and military analysts. Few are based on "reality" or realistic comprehension of the populace demographics, mindsets, probable reactions or capacity to think at a level "assumed" by the submitters as it presently exists.
We all forget that it was only in the last 10 to 15 years of the reign of the late Shah (1965 onward) that Iran BEGAN to emerge from the Dark Ages. In all fairness, it took him that long just to get the door open for them. Only to fall back into the darkness when Khomeini took over in 1979.
And they were intentionally sunk deeper into supersition and Islamic dogma. Don't be fooled by the two or three million out of a population of over 70 million, inside Iran, who are the "skin" under which lies the rest of a decent enough but very ignorant population. Again, intentionally kept that way by the Mullahs.
I agree. Since 1979, education for the general population has been provincial and religious, at best. The vocal unrest seems only to be among those who were already adults under the Shah, and among those university students who have been able educate themselves beyond the religious dogma.
As for the professional classes, they're probably the smallest minority. Without the Russians they would not be able to go nuclear or develop all of their new super weapons (such as they are). Without Russian engineers and techs (hired since the collapse of the Soviet Union), they'd probably be hard pressed to keep the lights on. Oil money can buy a lot.