While it is true that Iranians are more liberals than GCC Arabs (and not just Saudis, I lived in Dubai and frankly my Emarati friends were more conservative than my Iranian friends).
However, in the M.E. liberalism is very confusing. You can see the most liberal, open-minded middle eastern, for example, you feel talk about sexual liberalism & equality, but ask them, "Hey, can I have your sister's number?" and then suddenly, everyone travels back 100 years. This is just one example. Or how about the guy who drinks, fucks prostitutes, never prays, but then its Ramadan, and suddenly, they stop drinking, and if you even mention it to them, they will say, "Drinking?? In RAMADAN?!?!" as if God is sleeping for 11 months and one month God is awake. This is from guys who for the rest of the year, say they don't even believe in Islam.
The previous one is more true in Dubai from my experience. In Iran, it's that way with Tasua/Ashura. I have had very liberal (supposedly) friends who said they didn't believe in anything and one those days, I asked them "Why are you wearing black?" and they would say, "What? Oh, I didn't notice, I didn't have anything else, everything else was dirty" as if it is just a coincidence.
And finally, all the liberal Iranians and Arabs and probably Turks & Pakistanis (but not sure) are very liberal when they are 20 years old. But when they become 50 years old, they suddenly go to Hajj, make thoybah, stop drinking, and pray every day.
That's pure BS and a classical example of mental diarrhea. What you are saying is perfect description a typical religious middle class middle-esterner. Being a liberal is not about having sex with prostitutes. You don't have even slightest ideas about what liberalism or secularism mean like 99.9% of middleeastern people.