DUBAI: Ivanka Trump lauded on Sunday a handful of Mideast countries, including close US allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for embarking on significant reforms to advance women’s rights, while speaking at a gathering of women entrepreneurs and regional leaders in Dubai.

The daughter of US President Donald Trump was delivering the keynote address at the two-day Global Women’s Forum held in an opulent resort overlooking the city’s Persian Gulf coastline. We know that when women are free to succeed, families thrive, communities flourish and nations are stronger, Trump said.

The theme of the forum in Dubai was The Power of Influence. It was an apt theme for Trump, whose loyalty and support for her father’s presidency saw her and her husband, Jared Kushner, take up formal roles in the White House as his advisers.

The 38-year-old mother of three has positioned herself as an Oval Office confidante while spearheading initiatives that broadly back women’s empowerment. Her husband has become a top adviser on US Mideast policy.

Once the owner of an eponymous fashion line, Ivanka Trump has wielded her proximity to the president to promote policies affecting women and deliver speeches around the world about women’s economic empowerment. She meets with world leaders as a key White House official. Some of her efforts even have some bipartisan support in Washington, standing in sharp contrast to the level of controversy and political division surrounding her father’s presidency.

In her keynote speech at the women’s forum in Dubai on Sunday, Trump touted what she said was the progress of women in the United States. Today, American women are leading in every aspect of society. Last year, there were more women than men in the United States workforce, with women securing over 70 percent of new jobs, she said in her address.

Trump made no mention, however, of legislative obstacles in the US around paid family leave, which she and the US president support. Currently, just a few US states offer paid leave.

While questions continue to swirl over just how much influence she wields with her father, the US president gave a glimpse into their relationship in 2017 when he wrote on Twitter: She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing!” She’s previously said that when she disagrees with her father, he knows it”.

During her speech in Dubai, Trump congratulated Saudi Arabia for recent changes in the law that allow women to travel abroad and obtain a passport without the permission of a male relative. In 2018, a ban on women driving cars was lifted. The changes are part of a wide-ranging push to transform the Saudi economy, attract greater foreign investment and ease international criticism.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2020