Meet Zohran Mamdani’s global family: Scholar father Mahmood Mamdani, filmmaker mother Mira Nair, and artist wife Rama Duwaji

Meet Zohran Mamdani’s family: Scholar father Mahmood Mamdani, filmmaker mother Mira Nair, and artist wife Rama Duwaji

As New Yorkers cast their votes in one of the city’s most closely watched mayoral races, Democrat Zohran Mamdani’s historic rise has drawn attention not just to his politics, but also to the global family that helped shape his worldview.

Born in 1991 in Kampala, Uganda, Mamdani is the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and political scholar Mahmood Mamdani. Their transcontinental lives, spanning Africa, India, and the United States, have deeply influenced Zohran’s global outlook and progressive values.

He spent his early years in Uganda and South Africa before moving to New York City in 1999, when his father joined Columbia University as a professor. The family settled on the Upper West Side, and Mamdani later became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018.

Born in 1957 in Rourkela, India, Mira Nair is a globally acclaimed filmmaker whose work explores identity, migration, and cross-cultural experiences. A Harvard University graduate, Nair made her directorial debut with Salaam Bombay! (1988), which won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes and received an Academy Award nomination.

Her later films, including Mississippi Masala (1991), Monsoon Wedding (2001), and The Namesake (2006), cemented her reputation as a storyteller who blends personal narratives with social commentary.

Zohran’s father, Mahmood Mamdani, was born in Mumbai in 1946 and raised in Kampala, Uganda. Today, he is regarded as one of Africa’s most influential scholars on colonialism and postcolonial politics. Expelled from Uganda in 1972 during Idi Amin’s regime, he earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1974.

Now a Professor of Government and Anthropology at Columbia University, Mahmood is best known for his groundbreaking 1996 work Citizen and Subject, which introduced the concept of the “bifurcated state,” a framework for understanding postcolonial governance in Africa.

He has taught at leading institutions, including the University of Dar es Salaam, Makerere University, and the University of Cape Town, where he directed the Makerere Institute of Social Research from 2010 to 2022.

A vocal pro-Palestinian advocate, Mahmood has frequently criticized Israel’s occupation policies and spoken against Columbia University’s handling of campus protests, positions that his son has echoed in his own political rhetoric.

Mira Nair met Mahmood Mamdani in 1989 while researching Mississippi Masala in Uganda. She had intended to interview him for his book From Citizen to Refugee, instead, the meeting sparked a romance. They married in 1991, the same year Zohran was born.

Their shared belief in social justice, storytelling, and cross-cultural identity profoundly shaped Zohran’s approach to politics and public service.

After Mamdani’s historic victory in the 2025 New York City mayoral election, his wife Rama Sawaf Duwaji is set to become the city’s new First Lady. A Syrian-American illustrator and ceramicist, Duwaji has carved her own path in the art world while staying out of the political spotlight.

She was born in Houston, Texas, to Syrian parents, and spent her childhood between the United States and Dubai. She studied at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar, later transferring to the school’s Richmond campus in Virginia. She earned her master’s in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts, New York.

Her artwork, which often explores Middle Eastern womanhood and cultural identity, has appeared in major outlets including The New Yorker, The Washington Post, BBC, Vogue, VICE, Apple, Spotify, and Tate Modern.

They met in 2021 through the dating app Hinge, soon after he was elected to the New York State Assembly.

When rumors surfaced about a lavish Dubai wedding, Mamdani shared photos of their courthouse marriage to clarify the truth. His campaign later confirmed that the couple had celebrated a small engagement in Dubai surrounded by family.

Despite her husband’s growing political fame, Duwaji deliberately stayed out of campaign events, rarely making public appearances or social media posts urging votes. “It was a conscious decision to remain in the background and do her own thing when her husband does his own thing,” a source told CNN.

Still, she occasionally appeared alongside Mamdani at public events, including tapings of The Daily Show and his victory speech, where she received widespread attention for her calm, grounded presence.

Now, as Zohran Mamdani becomes New York City’s first Muslim mayor, and the first of Indian and African heritage, Rama Duwaji steps into the role of First Lady with the same quiet strength and creative spirit that has defined her career.

While Mamdani focuses on transforming New York into “a city affordable for all,” Duwaji continues to use her art to tell stories of belonging, resilience, and identity, a fitting reflection of the city they now lead together.