The report also emphasised the moral dimension of productive labour. Contemporary reformers believed that meaningful work encouraged discipline, responsibility, patience, and self-respect. Although these ideas reflected the social values of the 1940s, they also anticipated later international discussions concerning rehabilitation rather than punishment alone.
Historical documents indicate that until approximately 1332 in the Iranian calendar, there was no permanent women’s prison in the country. Instead, female prisoners remained confined in the rented house located in one of Tehran’s neighbourhoods. This building contained a relatively large courtyard surrounded by several rooms, but it had never been designed as a correctional institution.
Eventually rising rental costs forced prison authorities to reconsider this arrangement. Maintaining the rented property became increasingly expensive, leading officials to search for an alternative location. As a result, the administration decided to transfer female prisoners to Qasr Prison, one of Iran’s best-known correctional institutions.
To accommodate the transfer, the courtyard of the correctional institution located in the northwestern section of Qasr Prison was evacuated and converted into a women’s prison. Although this represented an administrative improvement by relocating female prisoners to an official prison complex, it did not necessarily solve many of the underlying problems related to overcrowding, healthcare, staffing, or rehabilitation.
