Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has embraced a more active role in public life as he seeks to shore up the authority of the Iranian regime after the most intense demonstrations since the Islamic revolution.
The supreme leader and the republic’s ultimate decision maker took the significant step in early February of pardoning tens of thousands of prisoners, including some of those involved in the anti-regime protests sparked by the death last year of a 22-year-old woman, which have now subsided.
