New protests as Iran plays down unrest

I'm on this social website called quora or people ask questions. The Iranians are saying on that website that the imams and the people are two separate entities. I know the Revolutionary guards and the codes for work alongside with the imams but it sounds like people who are living outside the big city have more autonomy and don't follow the same Hardline as the government. That is where the shootings are happening. So when the Shah was in power, the imams in the rural areas were the ones that didn't like his westernization. Now it's just the opposite. People from the country who think of themselves as more European and less Iranian orthodox s h i a are the ones that want the freedoms.