{"id":214285,"date":"2026-01-02T02:41:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/02\/what-should-a-democratic-socialist-wear-enter-mayor-zohran-mamdani-and-first-lady-rama-duwaji\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T02:41:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:41:36","slug":"what-should-a-democratic-socialist-wear-enter-mayor-zohran-mamdani-and-first-lady-rama-duwaji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/02\/what-should-a-democratic-socialist-wear-enter-mayor-zohran-mamdani-and-first-lady-rama-duwaji\/","title":{"rendered":"What Should a Democratic Socialist Wear? Enter Mayor Zohran Mamdani and First Lady Rama Duwaji"},"content":{"rendered":"


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This afternoon, Zohran Mamdani<\/strong> was sworn in as New York City\u2019s youngest mayor<\/a> \u201cin generations,\u201d to quote Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/strong>\u2019s opening remarks at the ceremony. The 34-year-old is also the first South Asian and Muslim to take on the role, which he underscored by taking his oath with two family Qurans during both of his swearing-ins, one held privately at midnight on January 1 and a second, public one held in the afternoon at City Hall Plaza.<\/p>\n

In his inaugural speech, Mamdani vowed to govern \u201cexpansively and audaciously,\u201d and said that New York will not be a city \u201cgoverned only by the one percent,\u201d or \u201ca tale of two cities, the rich versus the poor.\u201d He was sworn in by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders<\/strong>, who thanked New York City for electing Mamdani as mayor, and reminded the crowd that his ideas are \u201cnot radical.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, Mamdani and his First Lady, 28-year-old illustrator Rama Duwaji<\/strong>, have broken the political mold. Not solely because of Mamdani\u2019s perhaps not radical but inarguably progressive ideas\u2014to, say, tax the rich or enforce a rent freeze\u2014but also because of their ages and backgrounds, which have been underscored repeatedly by the media as cause of celebration or with Islamophobic dismay.<\/p>\n

Mamdani was born in Uganda to Indian parents, and Duwaji in Texas to Syrian Muslim progenitors. They are young and progressive, and they also look the part. The balancing act moving forward, as it pertains to their style now that they\u2019re embedded in the political establishment, will be to negotiate between the newfound gloss of their public image while keeping it consistent with their politics.<\/p>\n

When Mamdani celebrated his election<\/a> in November of 2025, Duwaji donned a top by London-based Palestinian-Jordanian designer Zeid Hijazi<\/strong> paired with a skirt by the New York-born and -based Ulla Johnson<\/strong>, who is known for her bohemian flair. She managed the task of looking both like a first lady and a 20-something woman dressing for a special occasion with aplomb. Back then, she had been advised\u2014free of charge\u2014by stylist Bailey Moon<\/strong>, who dresses the likes of Morgan Spector<\/strong> and Cristin Milioti<\/strong> and is most widely known for having worked with Jill Biden<\/strong> and her family throughout president Joe Biden<\/strong>\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

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Rama Duwaji and Zohran Mamdani on election night in November, 2025.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This afternoon, Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City\u2019s youngest mayor \u201cin generations,\u201d to quote Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s opening remarks at the ceremony. The 34-year-old is also the first South Asian and Muslim to take on the role, which he underscored by taking his oath with two family Qurans during both of his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4118,645,10385,3442,12038,644,12984],"class_list":{"0":"post-214285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrity","8":"tag-bernie-sanders","9":"tag-democrats","10":"tag-inauguration","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-mayors","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}