Meet Rama Duwaji who quietly shaped Zohran Mamdani’s rise to power in New York

Dubai: In the city that never sleeps, she found her power in silence — and in strength

Rama Duwaji, the Dallas-raised, Dubai-educated Syrian-American, has now become the youngest-ever First Lady of New York City.

While Zohran is the star of the day, Duwaji played a major role in his mayoral win.

At just 28, she stands beside her husband, Zohran Mamdani — the newly elected mayor — not as a political accessory, but as the quiet force who helped shape his rise.

For years, Duwaji stayed away from the limelight even as Mamdani’s profile grew. Friends say she was the one fine-tuning his campaign identity — the bold yellow, orange, and blue colors that became the visual signature of a grassroots movement. She helped define the campaign’s voice, its look, its tone — and, in many ways, its soul.

US media reported that Duwaji was among those who helped build Mamdani’s brand identity when he first kicked off his campaign, including the bold iconography and font used on his yellow, orange, and blue materials that became instantly recognisable across New York.

CNN said she was also credited with boosting her husband’s digital and large social media presence, apart from being a major source of support in his private life.

However, despite her apparent backstage efforts, Duwaji has not appeared on joint television shows with Mamdani or agreed to a splashy magazine profile. Even her Instagram page, where she promotes her artwork depicting Middle Eastern women and the plight of Palestinians, rarely reflects her association with Mamdani — apart from a single carousel from the June Democratic primary, where the couple appear together.

CNN said Duwaji, who is of Syrian descent, was born in Houston and lived in Texas until her family moved to Dubai when she was nine. She studied in Dubai before briefly attending the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar, later transferring to the university’s Richmond campus to complete her degree. She went on to earn a master’s in illustration as visual essay from the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Solidarity wih Palestine and Syria

Her work — featured in Vogue, The Cut, BBC, and The New Yorker — is deeply personal, often portraying displacement, endurance, and identity. Through minimalist lines and powerful imagery, she expresses solidarity with Palestine and Syria — themes that align with her husband’s outspoken criticism of the Israeli government’s conduct during the Gaza war.

“With so many people being pushed out and silenced by fear,” she told Yung magazine earlier this year, “all I can do is use my voice to speak out about what’s happening in the US and Palestine and Syria.”

Duwaji and Mamdani’s relationship, too, has its own quiet poetry. They met on a dating app in 2021, bonded over coffee at a Yemeni café in Brooklyn, and spent their second date walking through his legislative district in Queens. Engagement followed in Dubai, marriage in a Manhattan courthouse — a love story unadorned yet profound.

When critics questioned her low profile, Mamdani posted a gentle clarification: “Rama isn’t just my wife — she’s an incredible artist who deserves to be known on her own terms.”

Today, as she steps into her new role, Duwaji redefines what it means to be a first lady — not through speeches or social appearances, but through quiet conviction and creative purpose. She stands as a reminder that influence isn’t always loud; sometimes, it’s felt in the spaces between — in colour, in calm, in courage.

In a city that never stops talking, Rama Duwaji has shown that sometimes, the strongest voice is the one that doesn’t need to speak at all.

From a dating app to City Hall — how a Dubai-educated Syrian artist shaped New York’s new first lady story.