Actually, both era of before of 1979 and after 1979 for Iran are equally bad.
Shah times was opened society but Shah is too corrupted and had little care of ordinary Iranian. Most Iranian were poor and wealth was concentrated in just a small group of elite.
After 1979, new Iranian government try to address this issue but by bringing in religion and Islamic state which ruins all the rational decision and policy making of running a proper country. This result making decision favour only certain element of religion factor and ruin making decision that will steer country into proper direction of development.
Turkey is a great example of exempting itself from becoming Islamic state and developed properly until the early 2000s. Now currently Turkish are trying to turn themselves nationalist and islamic. Everything is going downhill and Turkey are turning back the clock.