Zohran Mamdani’s Wife Apologizes for ‘Harmful’ Racial Slurs She Posted on Social Media—But Not for Glorifying Terrorists

 

Rama Duwaji’s post celebrating a PFLP plane hijacker came in her early 20s. 

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani’s (D.) wife, First Lady Rama Duwaji, offered a belated apology for using slurs for black and gay people on an old social media account. She did not apologize for several posts sent in her early 20s glorifying Palestinian terrorists.

"When a tabloid recently published old tweets I wrote as a teenager, I felt a lot of shame being confronted with language I used that is so harmful to others; being 15 doesn’t excuse it," she told the online magazine Hyperallergic. "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." The Washington Free Beacon first reported on Duwaji’s past statements last month, including her use of the n-word.

Duwaji’s remarks are revealing for what she did not apologize for. Though Duwaji was a teenager when she posted the slurs, she was in her early 20s when she shared posts lauding terrorists like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s (PFLP) Leila Khaled, who participated in plane hijackings in 1969 and 1970.

In September 2017, at the age of 20, Duwaji shared a photo of Khaled to her Tumblr account featuring the quote, "If it does good for my cause, I’ll be happy to accept death." In another September 2017 post, Duwaji shared an image of a Bangladeshi postage stamp reading, "We salute the valiant freedom fighters of Palestine" and showing a man wearing a keffiyeh and holding a gun.