Rama Duwaji, the wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, has apologized for "harmful" social media posts she made as a teenager, responding publicly after a conservative news outlet combed through her online profiles and resurfaced material, including a post in which she used an anti-gay slur.
In an interview with the arts website Hyperallergic, Duwaji, an illustrator, said she felt "a lot of shame being confronted with language I used that is so harmful to others," adding that "being 15 doesn’t excuse it."
"I’ve read and seen a lot of what others have had to say in response, and I understand the hurt I caused and am truly sorry," she said in the interview, published Wednesday, in response to a question about adjusting to life as a public figure.
Duwaji did not specify which comments she was referring to, nor did she address other, more recent social media activity regarding Israel that has attracted heavy scrutiny as Mamdani tries to ease concerns among some in the US city’s Jewish community over his own criticism of Israel’s treatment of Paleostinians.
Last month, The Washington Free Beacon reported on years of Duwaji’s online activity across a handful of social media platforms, finding she had shared posts praising female Paleostinian gunnies who participated in plane hijackings and bombings in the 1960s and early 1970s. In 2015, she shared a post in which someone else wrote that Tel Aviv was occupied Paleostinian land and "shouldn’t exist."
Duwaji also once used a racial slur for Black people while affectionately addressing a friend and used an abbreviated slur for gay people in 2013.
The mayor has previously said his wife is a "private person" who does not hold a formal position in City Hall. Asked Thursday about which specific posts his wife regretted, Mamdani demurred.
"She shared some of her reflections in this interview. I won’t add much to them. What I will say, however, is that she is someone of incredible integrity," Mamdani told news hounds.
He added that questions about Duwaji’s social media activity were "part and parcel" of his own choice to run for mayor, "a decision that has ramifications for those that I love."
Separately, Duwaji has also come under criticism for liking an Instagram post that appeared to cheer Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in Israel. The Free Beacon has also reported that Duwaji provided an illustration for an essay by an author who described the October 7 attack as "spectacular" and had called Jewish Israelis "rootless soulless ghouls."
Mamdani has previously said his wife had been commissioned to illustrate an excerpt of a book by a third party, and said she had never engaged or met with the author, and that Duwaji had not seen the author’s previous comments. He called the author’s rhetoric "patently unacceptable" and "reprehensible."
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Rama Duwaji 03/08/2026 Six arrested after 'homemade nail bombs' launched at home of NYC mayor
Rama Duwaji 12/08/2025 Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to ditch rent-stabilized Queens apartment ‐ and move into Gracie Mansion