Modern York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, reportedly expressed support for individuals involved in acts of terrorism in a series of social media posts dating back to her teenage years and early adulthood, prompting renewed scrutiny of her online activity.
A report by the Washington Free Beacon detailed several posts from Duwaji’s Tumblr account. In September 2017, she shared an image of Leila Khaled, a prominent figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who participated in the hijacking of two airplanes in 1969 and 1970. The post included the caption, “If it does good for my cause, I’ll be happy to accept death.” Khaled is recognized as the first woman to hijack an airplane and remains a controversial figure celebrated by some as a revolutionary.
The posts, primarily made when Duwaji was in her early 20s, too included a March 2015 repost of a tweet praising Shadia Abu Ghazaleh, a terrorist who participated in the bombing of an Israeli bus and other attacks. An accompanying image showed Ghazaleh posing with a rifle. Ghazaleh was killed in 1968 when a bomb she was constructing detonated prematurely, reportedly intended for use in an attack on a building in Tel Aviv.
Other resurfaced posts reveal Duwaji’s engagement with Palestinian nationalist imagery. One post featured an image of someone wearing a keffiyeh and sewing a Palestinian Liberation Organization flag, captioned with details about a photograph taken during the First Intifada in February 1988. Another post showcased a Bangladeshi postage stamp bearing the message, “We salute the valiant freedom fighters of Palestine.”
Duwaji also used social media to voice strong opinions on U.S. Foreign policy. A July 2015 post criticized the U.S. Military presence abroad, stating, “American soldiers fighting in imperialist wars are not brave nor are they fighting for anyone’s freedom… They are mercilessly slaughtering 3rd world civilians and fighting to maintain American hegemony.”
Additional posts from 2015 included a repost of a statement arguing against blaming Muslims for terrorism, attributing the origins of Al-Qaeda to “White People.” She also criticized Snapchat for including Tel Aviv in its live story feature, writing, “But in all reality, @Snapchat has disappointed me. F*** #TelAviv. Shouldn’t exist in the first place. They’re occupiers. You celebrate them.” Another post shared on the platform accused Snapchat of “supporting a genocidal state” by highlighting Tel Aviv.
Duwaji married Mamdani in 2025. She recently came under scrutiny following reports that she liked several posts critical of Israel in the immediate aftermath of the October 7th attack by Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of 1,200 Israelis. She also reportedly liked a February 2024 Instagram post questioning the veracity of a New York Times investigation into sexual violence during the October 7th attacks.
Following the resurfacing of these posts, Duwaji deactivated her X (formerly Twitter) account, according to reports from TMZ. The Mayor’s office has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding the posts.
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