Mrs Robinson was speaking after further criticism of her views that "the Government has a responsibility to uphold God's laws".

She initially expressed the opinion during a heated abortion debate on Thursday's BBC Nolan Show.

Her opinions were blasted again yesterday by the SDLP, Sinn Fein, Alliance and UUP on the same show. But in her absence Stephen Nolan noted that "the overwhelming majority" of calls were in her favour.

The UUP said that Mrs Robinson "must realise the difficulty in which she places her husband, the First Minister" when she comments on religion and politics.

But yesterday Mrs Robinson objected: "To say I have no right to express an opinion is a most bigoted view," she said.

"How dare anyone say I cannot speak my mind just because my husband (Peter Robinson) is First Minister – are they trying to drag us back to the dark ages when women were not allowed to express a view?"

It was also entirely hypocritical of the SDLP, she said, to criticise her stance against homosexual practice: "When the SDLP kept saying the RUC was a completely unacceptable force was the SDLP blamed every time the IRA murdered a policeman?"

But SDLP MLA Alban Maginness hit back: "Her views could be construed as the private views of the First Minister," he said.

"We are at a very critical stage with the Executive and the relationship between First Minister and Deputy First Minister is extremely important.

"Anything that damages the integrity of that office damages the political process, which is not mature enough yet to withstand such damage."

A UUP spokesperson said it supported every public representative's right to hold personal views but added that "we simply stated that her comments could have implications for her husband's department" and implementing equality and human rights legislation.

Alliance MLA Stephen Farry said: "Nobody is attempting to censor Iris Robinson. Indeed, the Nolan Show and other media outlets allowed her ample opportunities to dig herself a hole, and they are giving her ample opportunities to try and dig herself out of it."

Yesterday Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness also came out against Mrs Robinson's view that Government should uphold "God's laws".

"I think it was a mistake," he said. "In the society that we live in now with many newcomers to our shores, and in many democracies throughout the world, we have a situation where many people within society believe in different things and believe in different gods. So what god are we talking about?

"Is it the Free Presbyterian god, is it the Church of Ireland god, is it the god that Catholics adhere to, is it the Mormon god, is it the Jehovah's, the Islamic?"

He added: "We need to be very wise and recognise that we can hurt all sorts of people's feelings."

l Stephen Nolan is taking a break from BBC Radio Ulster for five weeks from yesterday.