According to Dr. Fredrick Toben:

The concepts of ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ ring hollow and we had a few laughs when I
discussed them during lectures in various classes where law students sniggered at such
concepts used so hypocritically, for example when Hamas won the election in Palestine , which
Israel and the US rejected. Iranians enjoy more personal freedom than their counterparts in
the western world whose only freedom consists of the freedom to go shopping.
Admittedly, there are professional limitations imposed on individuals who refuse to comply
with the strict dress code that flow from the theocratic state, and public office will not be
available to anyone who refuses to submit to such. I wondered then how just and democratic
it is to have affirmative action in western democracies! At least in Iran such affirmative action
serves to consolidate the ideal rather than to fracture-divide society as it does in western
democracies where the outcome is a messy non-cultural multicultural hotch-potch, and where
unity of purpose is deliberately sabotaged for the sake of external interests. As stated before,
Iran still controls its own money supply, something that is a red rag to the international
financial cabal. Just as this money matter was the basic issue between Adolf Hitler and his
National Socialists in Germany , so too is Iran now clearly swimming against the stream. It is
resisting the US-imposed unifying principle of financial control, that economic straight jacket
which so effectively kills off national interests. Ian still produces many of its own goods, such
as cars and buses, and its quest for nuclear power is essential for its future development.

منبع : asra human rights research center