New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has a line about his wife. He’s used it three times now. It goes like this: “My wife is the love of my life, and she’s also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall.”
He first used it after reports that his wife, Rama Duwaji, had liked Instagram posts that described the Hamas-led Oct. 7 invasion as “breaking the walls of apartheid” and “resisting apartheid since 1948.” He returned to the same separation argument days later when asked about her illustration for a Susan Abulhawa project. And after the latest report about old social media accounts, Newsweek noted that Mamdani had previously stressed that Duwaji was a “private person.”
Three revelations. Two weeks. The same sentence hanging over all of them. And as of Thursday, the old X account, where much of the latest material was posted, appeared to have been deactivated.
Week One: The Likes
Reporting in early March said Duwaji liked Instagram posts shared on the day of the Oct. 7 attack that described the invasion as “breaking the walls of apartheid” and “resisting apartheid since 1948.” Other liked posts supported protests against Israel the following day. Mamdani, then facing questions about the posts, said his support for Palestinian liberation should never be confused for “a celebration of the loss of civilian life” and condemned rhetoric at a rally that sought to make light of those deaths…