NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani‘s wife Rama Duwaji has a trip to Syria and Lebanon on her schedule in September and that has triggered a major row as it is not clear whether she will be accompanied by NYPD security. New York Post reported that Duwaji requested NYPD security after she traveled overseas last month without police protection. But the countries that she intends to visit are on State Department’s ‘Do Not Travel’ list for Americans.Mayoral spokesperson Dora Pekec confirmed to New York Post that Rama Duwaji’s security detail will be joining her when she travel to visit family in Syria and Lebanon. But NYPD later denied it and said such a trip would never be approved.“The NYPD does not send officers to countries with level four travel advisories for discretionary reasons not linked to investigative work,” an NYPD spokesperson told Post, adding that this is not an official trip and hence NYPD personnel will not be traveling with Duwaji.Dov Hikind, a former Brooklyn Assemblyman and the founder of Americans Against Antisemtism, said if NYPD cops accompany Rama Duwaji, they will be in danger, and there is no danger for Duwaji in these countries as she will be “protected by Hezbollah”.“We’re putting the police officers in danger. They will be viewed as the bad guys. These are war zones,” Hikind said. “Duwaji doesn’t need security. She will get a hero’s welcome and be protected by Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis,” Hikind said.
Rama Duwaji’s Middle-East connection
Duwaji is a Syrian-American artist, animator, illustrator and ceramist. Born is Texas to Syrian parents, she grew up in New Jersey and Dubai. Her parents, Marwan Duwaji and Dr Bariah Dardari, are from Damascus. While her family has heritage and ties in Syria, her mother has also worked on medical/humanitarian missions in the region with the Syrian American Medical Society. Duwaji completed an artist residency in Beirut, Lebanon, before moving to New York City in 2021.Her work frequently centers on themes of Arab identity, womanhood, female solidarity, migration, and social justice.Last month, Duwaji co-hosted a pro-Palestinian all-female spiritual retreat on the French island of Corsica. Before that, she was at another retreat on the Spanish island of Mallorca, where she was the “artist-in-residence” at a sold-out “Plants Of The Quran” workshop. In these trips, Duwaji was not accompanied by NYPD cops.
