Nikki Haley says her mother lost out on judgeship because she was a woman

In her 2012 autobiography, Haley wrote that her mother, who belonged to a wealthy Punjab family and studied law at Delhi University, was prevented to sit on the bench by her own family.

When US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, an Indian American, told a New York audience on Wednesday that her mother, who had gone to a law school in India, was not allowed to sit on the bench, she had meant she wasn’t allowed by her own family, as she said in her 2012 autobiography.

Nikki Haley speaks to reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. (AFP Photo)

Speaking about her own rise, Haley said at a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations, her mother, Raj Kaur Randhawa, “was actually put up to be one of the first female judges in India, but because of the situation with women she wasn’t allowed to sit on the bench”.

Haley added, “But how amazing for her to watch her daughter become governor of South Carolina and US ambassador to the United Nations.”

In her 2012 autobiography, “Can’t is not an option: My American story”, Haley wrote her mother, who belonged to a wealthy Punjab family and studied law (at Delhi university), was prevented by her own family.

“She was offered the first female judgeship in India, but couldn’t accept it because her family didn’t think it was appropriate,” she wrote, adding, “Women just didn’t do those things.”

Raj Kaur Randhawa and her husband Ajit Singh Randhawa came to the United States in 1969 from Canada, where they had lived for a while after leaving India. She earned a master’s degree in education in South Carolina, and taught in the state’s public school system for some years. And then went on to start a business selling garments.

Haley, who was born to them in 1972 as Nimrata Randhawa, studied accounting and joined politics in 2004.

She has since had a meteoric rise in politics, first as member of South Carolina state House of Representatives, then two-term governor.