Would you disagree that it has been free at some point in the last 70 years?
I don't know how to answer that.
Was it free before 1953? I don't know.
There was more freedom under the Shah than now, but there was also political and religious oppression. I would not call that free.
When the Ayatollah and the fundamentalists took over there may have been a brief moment when people thought they were free, but that evaporated pretty quickly.
It's been a politically, religiously, culturally and socially oppressive regime from the start.