Wife of NYC Mayor Mamdani apologizes after scrutiny of past pro-Hamas social media activity

Rama Duwaji, wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, apologized in an interview published this week by art magazine Hyperallergic for her past social media activity, which included “likes” on content celebrating the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, as well as posts using racist language to describe minority groups.

"I feel great shame confronting the language I used," she said. "I have read and seen much of what others have said in response. I understand the pain I caused and I am truly sorry."

It is unclear exactly what she was referring to and to whom her apology was directed. The Washington Free Beacon has reported that, going back to the period between 2013 and 2017, she not only used demeaning language to describe members of certain minorities but also made explicit statements supporting Palestinian terrorist groups and their violent actions.

The media storm surrounding Duwaji’s social media activity began soon after her husband was elected mayor of New York City in November 2025. Responding to questions from journalists, Mamdani said his wife was a “private person” and noted that most of the “likes” in question predated their marriage in early 2025, as well as his mayoral campaign, which he launched in October 2024.

The controversy did not subside. Duwaji later deleted most of her old social media accounts, but the move did little to mollify critics, who argued that the city’s first couple owed the public a fuller response, beginning with an apology. This week’s interview is the closest thing to an apology to come from New York City’s first lady so far, and it remains to be seen if this will be enough to satisfy her critics.

Rama Sawaf Duwaji was born on June 30, 1997, in Houston, Texas. Her parents are Syrian immigrants to the United States who raised their family in Wayne, New Jersey, before relocating to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2006.

Duwaji lived most of her life in Dubai before spending her first year of university at the Virginia Commonwealth School of the Arts satellite campus in Doha, Qatar. She then completed her studies at the home campus in Richmond, Virginia, graduating in 2019.

She returned to Dubai and launched a successful career in the arts before moving to New York City in 2021 to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, finishing her studies in 2024. She met Zohran Mamdani around that time and they were engaged in October of 2024 and married in Dubai two months later, returning to New York for a civil ceremony in February of 2025 and then having another wedding ceremony for Mamdani’s extended family in Uganda in July of 2025.

Many American Jews have expressed deep discomfort with Mamdani, and since he assumed the office of New York Mayor in January of 2026, the Jewish Agency has reported a large increase in the number of Jewish residents of the city who have opened files to begin the process of immigrating to Israel.