NYC first lady Rama Duwaji traveling to Syria, Lebanon with taxpayer-funded NYPD security detail – NYP🤬
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, is heading to Syria and Lebanon next month and will be accompanied by cops assigned to the First Couple’s taxpayer-funded NYPD security detail, The New York Post reports.
Duwaji will travel to the Middle East beginning Sept. 20, visiting countries on the State Department’s “Do Not Travel” list because of dangerous conditions. A source familiar with the security detail said the 29-year-old Syrian-American artist requested NYPD protection after traveling overseas last month without it.
Mamdani’s office confirmed the trip and security detail. “Upon the strong recommendation of the NYPD, the First Lady’s security detail will be joining her when she travels to visit family in Syria and Lebanon,” said mayoral spokesperson Dora Pekec.
The source said, “It’s not official business. It’s not doing anything for the city.”
Pro-Israel Jewish advocate and former Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind opposed sending NYPD officers, saying they will be viewed as targets in “war zones.” He argued Duwaji would be protected by Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.
Duwaji’s parents are Syrian Muslims from Damascus, and she calls herself a “Syrian Illustrator.” She attended a 2019 residency at Beirut’s Haven for Artists, a feminist cultural organization focused on art and activism.
Last month, she co-hosted a pro-Palestinian, all-female spiritual retreat in Corsica organized by Women Sanctuary, a Muslim-and-women-focused travel group run by Parisian designer Rym Nur. She also skipped America’s 250th anniversary celebrations to attend the group’s Mallorca retreat, where she was an artist-in-residence for a sold-out “Plants Of The Quran” workshop. She was not accompanied by NYPD officers.
Like Mamdani, Duwaji is known for pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel views. She reportedly curated Spotify playlists featuring songs with foulmouthed anti-Israel lyrics following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. She also liked celebratory Instagram posts after the attack, including one claiming assaults by Hamas against Israeli hostages and victims were a “mass hoax.”
A New York magazine profile before Mamdani took office highlighted inflammatory old posts. In 2015, Duwaji said Tel Aviv “shouldn’t exist in the first place” and called its residents “occupiers.” Two years earlier, as a teen, she used the n-word in another post. She apologized in April for the “hurt” caused by alarming social media posts but did not directly apologize for the Israel-bashing content.
Mamdani has defended his wife, calling her a “private person” who should not face intense scrutiny over her social media activity.
Duwaji was also deeply involved in a Democratic socialist campaign promoting candidates critical of Israel and supporting the Not on Our Dime Act, which would punish or dissolve registered charities found to support “Israeli settler violence.” She created artwork for the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America as it promoted PalestineOnTheBallot.com, urging candidates to reject AIPAC funding and support the bill.
