Zohran Mamdanis wife Rama Duwaji uses her art to rage outspoken against US imperialism and Israeli war crimes
Just about every month Rama Duwaji, the coy artist wife of mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, makes a list of the things that “make me want to make art.”On October 9, as her husband continued with his frenetic campaign for office, those inspirations included “the relief work on the facade of the Grand Central Terminal” and the patterns of a Jacquard loom,” an 1805 weaving machine.A few days later, Duwaji, 28 — who was born in Texas but identifies as Syrian — included a post in her Instagram stories which may have shocked some of her followers, for it was in stark contrast to her usual reveries on the nature of art.Duwaji posted four broken heart emojis along with a photo of notorious terrorist propagandist Saleh Al-Jafarawi, known as Mr.FAFO, on October 12 after he was killed by an anti-Hamas militia in southern Gaza City.“Beloved Jafarawi,” fawned the post from Duwaji, who is poised to become the youngest first lady in the history of New York when Mamdani takes his oath of office in January.In addition to her sympathies for Al-Jafarawi — who praised the October 7 2023 attacks that left 1,200 Israelis dead — a closer look at Duwaji’s illustrations show she frequently targets “American imperialism” and is sharply critical of the US’s support for Israel.One image, posted in 2024, shows enormous stacks of US bills labeled “Israeli war crimes.” Mamdani himself commented next to the illustration writing “New York charities send over $60 million every year to fund Israeli war crimes, and that number is only growing.” He urged his followers to contact their elected officials to end the funding.In another illustration from 2020 that shows two women and children standing in front of a plume of smoke released from a distant airplane, the caption reads in part, “Presidents come and go, but American imperialism never changes.”An animation from May shows a Palestinian girl holding a large empty pot with the words “N...