I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard the names Mamdani and Duwaji all over the place; I presume you have too, so here’s a brief overview about them.
Zohran Mamdani, a Libra baby whose middle name is Kwame after Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, is the youngest person and the first-ever Muslim to be elected mayor of the Big Apple. He is a Democratic American politician who identifies more specifically as a democratic socialist. Before he was appointed mayor, he served as the representative of the Queens neighbourhood of Astoria within the New York State Assembly. Mamdani is the son of filmmaker artist Mira Nair and academic Mahmood Mamdani, a blend that reflects his character well, exemplifying his innate ability to capture an audience’s attention using clever, critically sound argumentation. Around the age of 6, he and his family moved to New York, making him an immigrant.
Mamdani announced his candidacy for mayor of New York City in the 2025 election, with a campaign built primarily on small-dollar donors. Educators donated the most to this campaign. It is impressive that PACs , standing for Political Action Committee, entailing transfers of funds from members for the purpose of raising and spending money to influence campaigns, candidates, and elections, spent over 20 million dollars merely to oppose him.
The billionaire class—Michael Bloomberg among them—poured $8.3 million into the super PAC Fix the City, which ran anti-Mamdani ads.
Rama Duwaji, an illustrator, ceramist, and animator, was born to Syrian Muslim parents from Damascus. After Rama was born in Houston, Texas, the family moved to the United Arab Emirates, where she spent the remainder of her childhood. She earned a BA in communication arts, undertook artist residencies in Paris and Beirut, and completed an MFA with a graduate thesis centred on food as a communal practice. Her illustrations explore Arab culture and social justice in the Middle East. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the BBC.
Rama and Mamdani met on Hinge. It was a Gen-Z love story for the win. The two had their first date in a Yemeni coffee shop (legitimately so relatable). Engaged in October and married in February 2023 in a nikah ceremony, the wedding photography is truly beautiful beyond comprehension. Check the photos by Kara McCurdy out here.
With the United States’ turbulent political landscape, right-wing policies from a cabinet headed by right-wing conservatives, the funding of a genocide occurring in Gaza, and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory’s provision of arms, the rise of Islamophobia has only intensified. Having a South Asian Muslim mayor who uses Arabic in his campaigning, a long-standing language associated with terrorist threats, and who identifies as a Shia Muslim, a minority sect within Islam, with his Syrian Muslim wife, altogether means New York is ready for a change.
PRETTY CLOTHES & POLITICS
Rama is a regular 28-year-old New Yorker. She is like other girls, with the cowboy boots, jorts, and tank tops. Even the vintage lace of her wedding dress matched this aesthetic.
On the night of Mamdani’s historic NYC win, Rama wore a piece by Palestinian Jordanian designer Zeid Hijazi. In this dress, the Tatreez pattern is featured, a traditional Palestinian embroidery that reflects solidarity and commemoration for the occupied land. Marie Claire pointed out that her dress was atypical, a departure from the pastels, the skirt suits that idly support on the sidelines…Rama instead sported a wardrobe that communicated her expression and voice.
Ulla Johnson, the designer of the black skirt, is an emerging and local NYC designer, as is the earring designer Eddie Borgo. Rama did not opt for the luxury brands that would communicate her separation from the working class, as many elites do. Of course, doing so would counter the message of Mamdani’s campaign, which is to be for the people, but she also intentionally put money back into the hands of the people, the 99%, the working class.
She blends her artist’s eyes with purpose, embroidering political messaging into her wardrobe. It was a choice that Duwaji was not in the spotlight during her husband’s campaign, making the things she did do, like her clothing, speak volumes that much more.
CAMPAIGN VISUALS
Another move that spoke volumes, but only to people who notice, was that Duwaji aided in finalizing the campaign’s brand identity, iconography, and font. The campaign reflected New York back to its citizens. For example, the New York City MetroCard, known for its bright yellow and blue hues, reflected the NY Mets’ dark blues.
The fonts can also be traced back to classic bodega signs, usually saying Cold Cuts, Cigarettes, Lotto, instead shout Fast & Free Buses, Freeze the Rent, or, most boldly, ZOHRAN FOR NEW YORK CITY. Now, the campaign logo, also designed by Duwaji, features Zohran’s name in yellow, a red drop shadow background with democratic blues, employing all the primary colours in a bold, attention-grabbing, mayoral manner.
Knowing that eyes would fall on her as her husband rose to relevance throughout the campaign period, she chose not to rely on shared Instagram graphics that she created but instead highlighted her other artwork, ones that depict everyday Middle Eastern women and the violence endured by Palestinians in an effort to raise awareness.
It is a clear departure from how first ladies or partners of politicians are expected to act, and Mamdani is on the same page about changing that outdated narrative. In response to right-wing critics of Duwaji, Mamdani said, “Rama isn’t just my wife, she’s an incredible artist who deserves to be known on her own terms.”
MUSLIM IDENTITY
Yes, Zohran Mamdani is of the Shi’a sect. And yes, I’ve had to fact-check that numerous times because to many, it almost seems unbelievable. He attended Ashura this past summer, which is a day of mourning that culminates from 10 days of mourning for Shi’a Muslims and includes both sermons and processions in solemn remembrance of Imam Husayn’s (as) (the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad), the remembrance of the sacrifice of justice against oppression, since 680 C.E, after the Battle of Karbala.
Mamdani has spoken on the impact that the Imam (as) has made on his life and the way he leads on the political scene, “As a Muslim I think it is important to commemorate the courage shown by Imam Husayn (as) in standing up to oppression on Ashura […] it’s something that continues to inspire so many in that same fight against oppression today. It’s a constant reminder that to […] stand up for that which is right often means doing that which is difficult. Imam Husayn’s (as) conviction in spite of the odds is one that inspires me and inspires so many in knowing what it sometimes must take to stand up for justice. And how often we have to showcase that courage in order to inspire others to join us and his is a testament of what is possible when we are guided by what is right.”
It is inspiring to see key Islamic figures celebrated in this way, to be painted in a light where Islam teaches fighting against oppression of all kinds, not causing it through terrorism, as the popular American narrative portrays.
Mamdani repeatedly affirms that he will serve all his constituents, including minority groups, and he demonstrates this commitment well beyond his campaigns. The mayor-elect of New York has a long-standing record of support for LGBTQ+ people. In May 2024, Mamdani announced a plan designed to protect LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, like an office for LGBTQIA+ affairs. On Instagram, he wrote, “New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQ+ people, but private institutions in our own city have already started capitulating to Trump’s assaults on trans rights.” In fact, in October, he made a promotional video sharing queer rights trailblazer Sylvia Rivera’s story to underscore his promise to honour her memory by building a city where trans New Yorkers are cherished.
Some people have taken to social media to share their thoughts on Mamdani’s advocacy for the queer community:
“This is the most confusing candidate I have seen in some time. All jokes aside.”
“He knows where the votes are but aren’t other Muslims thinking “hang on a minute here is he actually Muslim?”
“He either does not truly believe in his religion or his platform, and I’m lost as to why voters aren’t asking him to clarify which.”
Interestingly, Christian democrats are never scrutinized to the point where there is a request to renounce either their identity or their moral compass. Indeed, some Muslims do critique and question his support for LGBTQ+ people, but like every other religion, the Muslim identity is not a monolith, and we are not free until we are all free.
RHETORIC OF THE WRITTEN WORD
The victory speech that Mamdani presented on November 4th was the best in a while, thanks to Mamdani and Julian Gerson, his speechwriter. The 29-year-old writer draws inspiration from the multicultural city, working with Mamdani to strengthen the candidate’s relationship to his possible constituents and to bond with Black New York, as well as queer and trans spaces.
Gerson explained that the rhetoric of the written word simply lands more effectively “when you have somebody who just has this innate talent for knowing when to pause, knowing which syllables to emphasize.” He explained that the most successful speeches occur when an orator engages with the written word enough to make it their own.
Mamdani and Gerson delivered wit and playful allusion by quoting Mamdani’s rival, Andrew Cuomo’s father, Mario, in saying, “A great New Yorker once said that while you campaign in poetry, you govern in prose,” a diss line that could have only been delivered by former Mr. Cardamom.
Indeed, Mamdani and Gerson play on that line from Mario Cuomo, improving upon the seeming two-faced nature of it, saying, “if that must be true, let the prose we write still rhyme, and let us build a shining city for all,” implying that the prose will live up to the beautiful promises of the poetry.
One line that captured the gooseflesh on my mother’s arms as she turned up the Al Jazeera News Channel on the couch was the line, “ana minkum wa ilaykum,” translating to “I am of you and for you,” a sentiment that rings so deeply and powerfully in the hearts of the people, the minorities, but especially of diaspora Muslims and/or Arabs like me after the two years we have had here.
Gerson dove into the descriptions of working-class New York, the very citizens who cannot afford housing because of unlivable financial conditions, saying, “fingers bruised from lifting boxes on the warehouse floor, palms calloused from delivery bike handlebars, knuckles scarred with kitchen burns: these are not hands that have been allowed to hold power.”
Gerson and Mamdani gave an explicit nod to the multicultural groups that work tirelessly throughout the city, saying, “Thank you to those so often forgotten by the politics of our city, who made this movement their own. I speak of Yemeni bodega owners and Mexican abuelas. Senegalese taxi drivers and Uzbek nurses. Trinidadian line cooks and Ethiopian aunties. Yes, aunties.”
Mamdani also weaved Arabic through his rhetoric, which is bold, brave, and real. His refusal to negate parts of his identity that have the potential to contradict or do in the eyes of the general public comes out in this quote: “I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.” The quote rings true to the ana minkum wa ilaykum statement, that he is here, he belongs, and he is part of the political, social, and cultural tapestry that makes up New York and North America.
Indeed, his sentiments remained authentic throughout the campaign. Something intriguing about Mamdani is that he knows that he cannot hide from his identity, as many people of colour or marginalized groups cannot. Shying away from it would be to stick out like a sore thumb, especially to the minority groups he wants counted in his vote. Mamdani, in a historic move, released a promotional video filmed almost entirely in Arabic, featuring numerous small businesses and cultural references like having good knafeh. The video not only appealed to older, immigrant audiences for likability and laughs, like my mother and father, but also to young people. The latter hears an unabashed blend of language and power, and someone living in a time of negative representation and censorship of the Arab culture, Mamdani’s ad throws a wrench in plans to stifle the mother tongue, my mother tongue.
I decided to craft an article about Mamdani and Duwaji as inspirational figures, ones that are young, relatable, and trailblazing. I keep telling my friends, if any state would elect a South Asian Muslim mayor, it would be New York. But this is just the beginning, and people would do well to follow the advice that Mamdani gave Donald Trump: turn the volume up, because minority voices will not be silenced, and, as it has been since the beginning of time, we are stronger together. And I, a Lebanese Shia Muslim creative living in Ontario, feels moved. New York, unsurprisingly, is my dream place to live as a writer. With the current affairs of the United States, I thought I would have to settle for Toronto (I still might—I love you, GTA), but with Mamdani’s win, a first lady of New York with a nose like mine, and “the dawn of a better day for humanity,” there is hope.
WORKS CITED
https://qns.com/2025/01/mamdani-fundraising-record-mayoral-race/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://www.advocate.com/politics/zohran-mamdani-lgbtq-rights-record