Iran
There were female political prisoners in Iran long before women's prisons were established and prior to the modern discourse of the political prisoner, which goes back to the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The imprisonment of women was an important aspect throughout all periods of political suppression.
1840s/1850s. Suppression of the Bābī movement
Qurrat al-ʿAyn, a woman leader of the Bābī movement was until her execution incarcerated (January 1850–October 1852) in a non-official prison, in t…