The United Ambassador to United Nations, Nikki Haley, on Wednesday claimed that her mother was not allowed to be a judge in India. According to Haley, her mother, who had studied law in India, was barred from being a judge because she was a woman.

“When you didn’t have a lot of education in India, my mother actually was able to go to law school... But because of the situation with women she wasn’t allowed to sit on the bench,” Haley said in her speech at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Although Haley claimed that her mother was denied judgeship because of her gender, India had its first female judge much before Haley’s parents Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawa had emigrated to Canada in the 1960s. Justice Anna Chandy became a high court judge in 1959. Prior to that, she was appointed a munsif in Travancore in 1937.

When asked to speak about the role of women, the South Carolina governor declared herself to be a “big fan” of women. “I think there’s nothing they [women] can’t do. And I think any democracy that has allowed themselves to really lift up women has benefited from it,” she added.

Haley then went on to add that immigrants to US have only helped the country. “I’m the proud daughter of Indian immigrants who reminded my brothers, my sister and me everyday how blessed we were to be in this country,” she said, adding that she believed the fabric of America is “legal immigration”.

She, however, defended President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and said that it was not a move against Muslims. “We should never ban based on religion. I don’t think that’s what this [Trump’s travel ban] is,” she added.