A Profile of the Syrian-American Illustrator Who Helped Shape a Political Movement
As New York City prepares to welcome its first Muslim mayor, another historic milestone emerges from the shadows: at just 28, Rama Duwaji is set to become the city’s youngest first lady and the first member of Gen Z to assume the role NewsweekWWD. Yet to understand Duwaji solely through her husband Zohran Mamdani’s political ascent would be to miss the essence of an artist whose work has quietly shaped conversations about identity, displacement, and resistance across continents.
Early Life and Ethnic Background
Born in 1997 in Houston, Texas, Rama Sawaf Duwaji comes from a prominent Syrian Muslim family originally from Damascus; her father is a software developer and her mother a doctor Wikipedia. When she was nine years old, her family moved from Texas to Dubai, where she spent her childhood and formative years Gulf News.
This transnational upbringing would prove foundational to her artistic identity. In a 2019 interview with Shado Magazine, Duwaji recounted that she became proud of her Syrian heritage only after moving to the US in 2016, explaining: “I was living in the GCC for 10 years as the Amreekiya, the American… But when I got to America I realized I definitely was not really American in the typical sense either, I just couldn’t relate” AL-Monitor. She added, “My sense of identity took a hit so I think I kind of clung to my Middle Eastern identity, whatever that is. It’s not inherently Syrian nor Emirati, but whatever it is, it definitely influenced my work in a major way” AL-Monitor.
Education and Artistic Development
Duwaji studied communication arts at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts Wikipedia, briefly attending Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar before transferring to the school’s Richmond campus to complete her degree The National. She later earned a MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2024 WWD.
Duwaji’s time in Dubai was impactful on her artistic development. The city’s vibrant, multicultural environment, along with its unique beauty ideals and cultural narratives, deeply influenced her aesthetic and thematic focus Gulf News. Her work evolved to explore what she describes as “the nuances of sisterhood and communal experiences” South China Morning Post through portraiture and movement.
Professional Accomplishments
Duwaji has established herself as a significant voice in contemporary illustration and animation. Her portfolio includes illustrations, short films, animation and ceramics, and her work has been featured by such companies as Vogue, The New Yorker, the Tate Modern, The Washington Post, the BBC, Apple, Spotify and Vice WWD. She has also taught workshops on both illustration, animation and ceramics WWD.
Much of Duwaji’s illustrations explores Arab culture with an emphasis on social justice, particularly women’s rights. She focuses on creating art based on her own experiences and issues she cares about Wikipedia. Professionally, Rama is best known for evocative digital portraiture that explores sisterhood, identity, and communal healing, with a strong emphasis on Middle Eastern culture and female empowerment Gulf News.
Duwaji approaches art as both an archive and a space of refuge, reflecting that “expecting my art to move people stems from the ego” YUNG, suggesting a more contemplative approach to her work’s impact.
Political Activism and Social Causes
Duwaji’s artistic practice has increasingly intersected with political activism, particularly regarding Middle Eastern conflicts. Since 2023, Duwaji has created numerous works about Israeli crimes in Gaza during the Gaza war, as well as artwork supporting the victims of the Sudanese Civil War Wikipedia.
Earlier this year, Duwaji shared an illustration about the ongoing hunger crisis in Gaza, writing: “As I was making this, Israel has been bombing Gaza nonstop with successive airstrikes. Keep your eyes on Gaza and support @goprojecthope” The National. In April 2023, Duwaji shared an illustration of a woman with text reading “Eyes on Sudan,” followed by slides including information on the plight of Sudanese citizens impacted by the country’s civil war and ways to donate to support refugees and domestic violence victims Time.
Some of her work projects on Instagram criticize “American imperialism,” and the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians. She has also shown support for Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate that the Trump administration is seeking to deport due to his work advocating for Palestinians, which has been labelled as “antisemitism” towards Jews Irish Star.
Her website also shares various works including a short animated documentary featured on the BBC, about the unsolved murder of former Yemeni Foreign Minister Mohamed Noman in 1974 AL-Monitor.
Relationship with Zohran Mamdani
Duwaji first met Zohran Mamdani, a member of the New York State Assembly and the son of academic Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair, on the dating app Hinge in 2021 Wikipedia. Their first date was at Qahwah House, a Yemeni coffee shop in Brooklyn The National.
They were engaged in October 2024, held a private nikah ceremony two months later, and married in February 2025 in a civil ceremony at New York City Hall; they also had a ceremony in Uganda (Mamdani’s birth country) in July 2025 Wikipedia. The couple currently reside in Mamdani’s legislative district of Astoria, Queens, near Steinway Street Wikipedia.
Role in Mamdani’s Political Campaign
Despite maintaining a deliberately low public profile, Duwaji helped finalize the campaign’s brand identity and worked on the final version of the campaign’s iconography and font, which showcases a distinct blend of colors easily identifiable to New Yorkers: Metrocard orange-yellow, New York Mets blue for shadow drops and backgrounds, and splashes of firehouse red. The font calls back to a time of bold-yellow bodega signs calling out to customers CNN.
Mamdani, whose mayoral bid has been powered by his use of social media, also credits Duwaji with improving the campaign’s digital sensibilities CNN. Perhaps her most famous work is Mamdani’s campaign logo and branding. A distinct yellow “Zohran” with a red drop shadow, set against a Democratic blue background, has become instantly recognizable to New Yorkers in recent months Newsweek.
Several months before the ceremony, Mamdani and Duwaji discussed how his plans to run for mayor could potentially change their lives, limit their privacy and likely thrust Duwaji into the public eye, according to a person familiar with the couple granted anonymity to share private details CNN.
Controversies and Criticism
Duwaji’s decision to remain largely absent from the campaign trail generated both criticism and curiosity. Mamdani faced some backlash for seemingly keeping his relationship private throughout most of his campaign and was forced to address it back in May after some social media users accused him of ‘hiding his wife’ Tyla.
Right-wingers also attacked Rama for using her art to support the pro-Palestine movement and took aim at the couple for having an ‘extravagant’ wedding ceremony in Dubai Tyla. However, The New York Post reported that actually, ceremonies at the venue they chose typically cost around $72 per person with a minimum food-and-beverage spend of about $2,700 Tyla.
In his Instagram post defending his wife, Mamdani criticized online trolls for targeting Duwaji during his mayoral campaign, writing: “Rama isn’t just my wife, she’s an incredible artist who deserves to be known on her own terms. You can critique my views, but not my family” Time.
International Associations
Duwaji has shared photos on Instagram of what appears to be her vacationing in Damascus in June 2023 and June 2021. Also in September 2018, she posted a carousel of photos captioned “Beirut archives,” suggesting that she was in the Lebanese capital at that time AL-Monitor. During the Covid pandemic, she spent the majority of her time with her family in Dubai before moving to the US The National.
Her family maintains strong ties to Dubai, where the private rooftop wedding ceremony of Rama Duwaji, 28, and Zohran Mamdani, 34, in Dubai provided a meaningful setting for their celebration, blending modern influences and family ties Gulf News.
A New Model of Political Partnership
Duwaji isn’t playing the traditional role of a first lady in waiting. She hasn’t stumped for Zohran Mamdani, the New York City Democratic mayoral nominee and front-runner she married earlier this year. She hasn’t done a joint television appearance or agreed to a splashy magazine profile CNN. And hardly anything on her Instagram page, where she promotes her artwork depicting Middle Eastern women and the plight of Palestinians, suggests that she even knows Mamdani, aside from one post on the day of the June Democratic primary CNN, where she wrote “Couldn’t possibly be prouder” with photos of the couple together Time.
On Election Day, Duwaji wore a black top by a Palestinian designer Zeid Hijazi, who draws from “abstract folklore and Arab futurism” ThePrint, demonstrating how even her fashion choices carry political meaning.
If Mamdani wins Tuesday’s election, becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor and its youngest in a century, Duwaji too would be positioned to make and shape history. She would be the first member of Gen Z to serve as New York City’s first lady, a 28-year-old artist moving into Gracie Mansion under the relentless spotlight of America’s largest city CNN.
As New York prepares for this new chapter, Rama Duwaji represents a departure from traditional political spouse narratives—an artist whose influence operates through creative vision rather than public appearances, whose activism speaks through line and color rather than campaign speeches, and whose identity remains firmly rooted in her own terms, even as history beckons.