But look what happened to them. Those students ---and there were many ---where here enjoying American freedom, they were sometimes jerks but Iranians --even the jerks tend to like to discuss politics and religion with Americans. They're actually more open minded than the typical Muslim, they aren't really as full of hate as their clerics would have them, most would admit to liking Jews on an individual basis. And back then they had a fairly Westernized lifestyle in Iran, they were allowed to wear normal clothes and become educated.
Once they overthrew their Shah, they suddenly got pulled back and got to enjoy their Islamic paradise which they really didn't enjoy all that much. From what people tell me that on the surface things look one way, the women are forced to wear brown ugly drapes in public ---and they don't like it --but underneath they are wearing make-up, dressed very nicely. Everyone listens to smuggled in American and European music CD's, they're watching American movies, the customs agents haven't been confiscating many items brought it because they also don't support the hardline clerics. It will be interesting but I think they may follow the example of Poland when it overthrew their oppressors.
Poland was one of the most civilized and cultured countries in the world when it was raped by Germany and the Soviet Union. Iran has changed little since the centuries when Persian Shahs kept the stuffed body of Emperor Valerian in their court.