Funny on one hand you have Iran a country where Women vote, were the country is ranked among the top 10 countries in the world in the % of female university graduates, % of women working in industry & economic activity growth of women. In a country that has the largest Jewish population of the Middle East outside Israel, where Christians, Jews & Zoroastrians each have their own elected reps in Iran's parliament whos vote counts like any other Iranian MP and have their own churches and synagogues....
And on the other hand you have Saudi Arabia where women don't vote, women can barely even drive, a women working as an architect or store clerk is so uncommon that it makes international news in a country that doesn't have a single church or synagogue that beheads people with swords in public as an official means of execution
And yet Iran is seen as the religious extremist between the two simply because it wish to have it's own independence and not bow to any other power!
Point is that even if Iran was more secular like Syria it really wouldn't change U.S. behavior towards Iran just as it didn't change U.S. behavior towards Assad or U.S. behavior towards N.Korea