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"She's our Princess Diana"/ Who is Rama Duwaji, the artist who led her husband's campaign for mayor of New York?

2025-11-05 19:36:26Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"She's our Princess Diana"/ Who is Rama Duwaji, the artist who
Rama Duwaji and Zohran Mamdani

"There is no one else I would want by my side right now, or at any other time," said Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor of New York City, in his victory speech.

Rama Duwaji, the new first lady of New York, is a 28-year-old illustrator of Syrian descent, born in Houston, Texas, who moved to Dubai with her family at the age of 7 and then returned to the US to complete her university studies.

At the end of Mamdani's speech, she took the stage with her husband's parents, renowned Indian filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University academic Mahmood Mamdani. Then they all left the stage together.

If Zohran Mamdani represents a mayor of the so-called "millennial" generation, Rama Duwaji is the first first lady of the "Z" generation.

They met on the dating app Hinge in 2021. Their first meeting was at Qahwah House, a Yemeni coffee shop in Brooklyn, and they went for a walk in the park afterward. At the time, she didn't know that Mamdani was a member of the New York State Assembly. Mamdani launched his mayoral campaign shortly after announcing their engagement on Instagram.

They celebrated with family in Dubai and were married in a Manhattan courthouse in February 2025. A photographer friend took the viral photos of the couple on the subway, heading to City Hall from their apartment in Astoria, Queens. She had short hair, a white dress, and black knee-high boots.

"She's our Princess Diana"/ Who is Rama Duwaji, the artist who

It was clear from the start that Duwaji would not play the traditional role of first lady. She did not appear at her husband's many rallies, but she was by his side on the night of his victory in the primary when he took her hand and kissed it in front of the crowd, as well as yesterday when they voted hand in hand outside their Astoria apartment and then at the end of the campaign on the stage of the Paramount Theatre in Brooklyn.

"She's our Princess Diana"/ Who is Rama Duwaji, the artist who

Rama Duwaji has not given television interviews or posed for magazine covers. However, her illustrations have previously been published in magazines such as Vogue and the New Yorker. On her Instagram profile, she shares monthly inspirations for creating art and publishes her illustrations, which often feature women from the Middle East or stories that reflect the Palestinian drama. An animation made in May, for example, shows a Palestinian girl holding an empty pot with the words: “It is not a food crisis,” followed by another drawing of many people holding empty pots with the caption: “They are starving to death on purpose.”

Duwaji has not hesitated to speak out about these issues through her art during the months of the campaign: her pro-Palestinian posts are in full accordance with her husband’s criticism of the Israeli government, which has cost him a share of the Jewish vote in New York. In an interview in April with Yung magazine, which focuses on art from the Middle East and Africa, Duwaji said: “A lot of people have been silenced out of fear, and all I can do is use my voice to speak out about what’s happening in the US, in Palestine, in Syria.” “She’s our Princess Diana,” a friend of the couple, Hasnain Bhatti, told the New York Times.

Mamdani has rarely appeared in his wife's posts: in the posts she made on her "Instagram story" on election day, Duwaji shared a selfie with only the letter "I voted"; after the primaries, he published a photo of the two of them and accompanied it with the caption: "I couldn't be more proud."

However, Duwaji has provided plenty of advice behind the scenes: her husband's iconic poster was coordinated with hers. The font is reminiscent of the yellow lettering of old New York stores, the colors are Metrocard yellow, Mets blue (the Queens baseball team) and fire truck red. She has accompanied Mamdani to the most important events, without exposing herself: she was in public at the last rally at Forrest Hills Stadium in Queens, a week before the vote.

"She's our Princess Diana"/ Who is Rama Duwaji, the artist who

Before the wedding, the young couple discussed how Mamdani's mayoral run might affect her life. "Rama is not only my wife, she is an extraordinary artist who deserves to be recognized for what she does," the candidate responded to criticism from the New York Post about the "luxurious" and "expensive" engagement ceremony in Dubai. "You can criticize my ideas, but not my family."

One day, while speaking about childcare for New Yorkers, he was asked if he planned to have children soon. “I feel like I’m talking to my mother,” Mamdani, 34, replied.

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