Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was forced to clarify Monday, 27 October 2025, that the “aunt” he described in an emotional campaign story about post-9/11 Islamophobia was actually his father’s cousin who passed away a few years ago, after critics questioned the account and identified his biological aunt as a woman living in Tanzania at the time.
Zohran now says it was a distant cousin, not an aunt, who was afraid to wear her hijab in NYC because of 9/11
(His aunt doesn’t wear a hijab)
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 27, 2025
The controversy emerged after Mamdani’s tearful speech on Friday outside the Islamic Cultural Center in The Bronx, where he recalled how his “aunt” stopped taking the subway after the 11 September 2001, terror attacks because she “did not feel safe in her hijab.”
The Democratic Socialist candidate addressed the controversy on Monday during a press conference, saying, “I was speaking about Zehra fuhi, my father’s cousin, who passed away a few years ago.” Mamdani explained that he used the term “fuhi,” which means paternal aunt in Urdu and Hindi, as a familial expression of respect rather than a literal reference to an aunt.
On 24 October 2025, Mamdani made the remarks outside a Bronx Mosque, where he spoke about what he described as “indignities” faced by Muslims in New York after the September 11 attacks.
Surrounded by Muslim community leaders, Mamdani said, “I want to speak to the Muslims of New York City.” In the next few seconds, in what seems like pretence to shed a few tears, he then spoke of the “memory of his aunt”, who stopped taking the subway after September 11. He said, “I want to speak to the memory of my aunt, who stopped taking the subway after September 11 because she did not feel safe in her hijab.” He also recounted allegedly being advised to conceal his religious identity when he first entered politics, describing these experiences as shared lessons among Muslim New Yorkers. Mamdani added that “over these last few days, these lessons have become the closing messages of Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa, and Eric Adams.”
Soon after, social media started digging into the details. Ater extensive review, it appears Zohran Mamdani has three aunts – two of whom are Hindu (from his mother’s side), making the hijab reference inapplicable, while the only Muslim aunt, according to public records and biographical information, is not known to wear a hijab and has never been a resident of New York City.
Further reporting indicates that during the period in question, his aunt was living in Tanzania. Records show she resided there from January 2000 until at least December 2003, meaning she was not in New York City before, during, or after the 9/11 attacks.
The fact-checking investigation concluded that the individual Mamdani referred to as his aunt “who was scared of taking the bus wearing her hijab” is a person who, according to available information, does not wear the hijab and was not living in the United States at the time.
However, as many netizens were expecting, Mamdani changed the goalpost and said he talked about a distant cousin of his father – the aunt he was referring to in his story.
As always, he will just change the goalpost and claim it’s a different aunt.
— PM (@naannomad) October 27, 2025
(Source: New York Post)
Subscribe to our channels on WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and YouTube to get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
