Socialist Mamdani clarifies aunt’s NYC subway experience amid 9/11 controversy

Socialist New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Monday clarified an anecdote that sparked controversy on social media, associated to an anecdote he informed about his “aunt” not utilizing the New York Metropolis subway on account of Islamophobia after September 11.

“I used to be speaking about Zehra fuhi, my father’s cousin, who handed away just a few years in the past,” Mamdani informed reporters on Monday, utilizing the time period “fuhi,” which suggests paternal aunt in Hindi and Urdu, based on the New York Publish, after social media customers raised questions in regards to the veracity of his story.

“I need to communicate in reminiscence of my aunt who stopped taking the subway after September 11 as a result of she didn’t really feel protected in her hijab,” Mamdani says, combating again tears. told a crowd on Oct. 24, laying out his considerations about Islamophobia and suggesting that criticism of his anti-Israel positions is rooted in a disregard for his Muslim religion.

Shortly after that excerpt hit the Web, there was a wave of criticism from conservatives and Web sleuths who poked holes within the story and urged that Mamdani had embellished it, referring to his solely direct organic aunt, Dr. Masuma Mamdani, who acknowledged on her LinkedIn that she labored and possibly lived in Tanzania from January 2000 to December 2003. Moreover, publicly obtainable images of Masuma Mamdani don’t present her sporting any clothes. hijab.

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Democratic New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks to reporters on the Higher East Aspect of Manhattan on Monday, October 27, 2025. (Fox Information Digital/Deirdre Heavey)

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The controversy reached the White Home within the type of a message on X from Vice President JD Vance, who expressed skepticism in regards to the story.

“In accordance with Zohran, the true sufferer of September 11 was his aunt, who (reportedly) regarded dangerous,” the vice chairman wrote.

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Zohran Mamdani, Democratic mayoral candidate of New York Metropolis, speaks throughout an interview on “The Story with Martha MacCallum” on Fox Information on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in New York Metropolis. (Picture by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Mamdani’s father Mahmood, who Zohran Mamdani mentioned is the deceased aunt’s cousin, has confronted criticism through the marketing campaign for his controversial previous statements as a professor at Columbia College, together with a declare that Hitler was impressed by Abraham Lincoln, which resurfaced on social media in current days.

Mahmood Mamdani additionally sits on the advisory board of an anti-Israel group that helps boycotts and sanctions in opposition to Israel, and routinely accuses the Israeli authorities of committing “genocide,” Fox Information Digital reported this summer season.

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Democratic New York Metropolis mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks to supporters at a canvas launch occasion in Prospect Park on Sunday, August 17, 2025. (Deirdre Heavey/Fox Information Digital)

“Suicide bombings must be seen as an indicator of recent political violence and never stigmatized as an indication of barbarism,” the elder Mamdani wrote in his 2004 e-book Good Muslim, Dangerous Muslim: America, the Chilly Struggle, and the Roots of Terror.

“We should initially acknowledge the suicide bomber as a class of troopers.”

Zohran Mamdani has in current days pushed again in opposition to critics of his varied anti-Israel insurance policies and statements relationship again to his time in school, suggesting that these criticisms are rooted in anti-Muslim bigotry.

“Each Muslim’s dream is solely to be handled the identical as each different New Yorker,” Mamdani says posted on X Friday with a video that was considered at the very least 24 million occasions. “And but for too lengthy we’ve got been informed to ask for lower than that, and endure hatred and bigotry within the shadows. Not anymore.’