I never said they weren't contentious. The issue is whether she expressed opinions that were inflammatory to her hosts. Did she?
No, because the
"Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research" seem to be a pretty progressive bunch of people concerned with a wide range of issues, including the role of women in politics and women in society.
Now consider the women's rights issues. What exactly should she have said? Followed up her statements made in Australia? Contradicted what she had said in Australia so as to appease her guests? Or withheld her remarks?
"Indeed, we need to strive for a time when it is so usual for women to be in parliament that no one feels the need to comment on it. Much more needs to be done to ensure women and men are equally represented in our parliaments."
She's said that in the past.
But it's no surprise that she said nothing. I felt that much of that "calling out sexism/blue tie" stuff was politically motivated, cooked up by the likes of flogs like McTernan
. Good luck to her in that regard, politics is politics, kill or be killed, use whatever you can get your hands on to make your point
. But it will probably break the hearts of the mummy bloggers and the twitterati that she wasn't
really totally into all that sisterhood solidarity, it was primarily a means to an end, but thanks for your support anyway.