New Delhi: Zohran Mamdani just made history by becoming the New York City mayor. Young, Muslim, child of immigrants, democrat-socialist—the elements that have framed Mamdani’s politics and maneuvered his victory through are also what his detractors played up. His parents— filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani—became evidence of his privileged upbringing. But what also sparked intrigue was his wife, Rama Duwaji, a Syrian artist.
Born in 1997, Duwaji is being projected as New York’s first ‘Gen-Z first-lady.’ An article in The New York Post positions her as Mamdani’s “aloof wife,” who, despite being largely absent from Mamdani’s campaign and silent on social media, has “quietly steered” his win. An illustrator and animator, Duwaji’s work also emerges from a political lens, rooted in activism, people, and the intermeshing of the personal and public.
One of her animations, shared on her Instagram, depicts the mass starvation of Gazans. “As I was making this, Israel has been bombing Gaza nonstop with consecutive airstrikes,” reads the caption.
She also routinely works with The New Yorker and New York Magazine’s The Cut. Her illustrations, which serve as visual comprehensions of the text, are graphic narratives in and of themselves. There’s a strong sense of the artist that comes through, even as the work represents the people portrayed.
“My art stays being a reflection of what’s happening around me, but right now what feels even more useful than my role as an artist, is my role as a US citizen. With so many people being pushed out and silenced by fear, all I can do is use my voice to speak out about what’s happening in the US and Palestine and Syria as much as I can,” she said in an interview, published in April.
She also said she views her work as an “archive”; a repository of memory—“personal and collective.”
If it needs to be said, the interview finds no mention of Mamdani, her husband, who was then carving out a new style of American campaigning, and would go on to win the Democratic primary two months later.
Hardly a politician’s wife
Up until a year ago, Mamdani was seen as a non-entity in American politics. He eludes categories; the traditional stereotypes of who a politician, the mayor of the world’s richest city, should look like. Similarly, Duwaji, if viewed through the prism of politics, is hardly a “politician’s wife.” She doesn’t have an identity located within the confines of her husband’s career, and has mostly stayed away from the campaign. She was barely seen at all. But somehow, that’s what propelled her into the limelight—to the point where she’s even been referred to as New York’s Princess Diana.
But perhaps a softer politics is being crafted through their relationship. They live in a rent-controlled apartment in Queens, and New York’s unaffordability has been the bedrock of Mamdani’s campaign. They met on Hinge—a clear indicator of the demographic they belong to—one which adores Mamdani. Their wedding was made public by a series of artfully shot photographs. They were laughing and holding hands on the Subway, and posing serenely in front of immigrant-owned grocery stores. A wedding, the coming together of two people, is supposedly an intimate act. But Mamdani and Duwaji appeared to have opened up the entire city—a rendering that was clearly being missed.
The outfits worn by first ladies are curated, carefully deliberated acts of messaging. Duwaji wore a black top by a Palestinian designer Zeid Hijazi, who draws from, according to his website, “abstract folklore and Arab futurism.” By eschewing tradition once again, Duwaji is further cultivating her brand—and cementing Mamdani’s too.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)