Mamdani triggered controversy after he claimed his aunt felt unsafe in hijab in NYC after 9/11.
NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani recently recalled how his aunt suffered after 9/11, as she felt unsafe in her hijab, which drew suspicious stares in an atmosphere vilifying Muslims. The comment came as Mamdani was speaking about Islamophobia in the US, triggering a sharp jibe from Vice President JD Vancd as he mocked that Mamdani made his aunt the real 9/11 victim in his sob story. This came in a latest flashpoint as early voting begins in New York City mayoral race with Mamdani leading in a survey. Now, a post has gone viral as it takes a closer look at finding out about Mamdani’s aunt and the incident that Mamdani narrated about her. The post by one Sana Ebrahimi claims that Mamdani’s only aunt, Masuma Mamdani, does not wear hijab. “Seems like Mamdani’s only aunt, aka the real victim of 9/11, who was scared of taking the bus wearing her hijab, does not even wear hijab,” the post said, adding a screenshot of a profile page of Mamdani’s aunt. Another social media user, Afshune Emrani, claimed Mamdani’s aunt was actually in Tanzania after 9/11. “This wasn’t a misunderstanding. It was a fabrication — a calculated manipulation of truth. And it came from a man who built his career on falsehoods,” the post claimed, pushing voters towards Mamdani’s rival, Andrew Cuomo, in the election. “He lied. He deceived. He disrespected every New Yorker who actually lived that pain. If integrity still matters — if truth still counts — then silence is complicity. Shame on anyone who won’t vote him out,” the post said. While the claims made in these viral posts are not verified, many social media users pushed against the Mamdani-hate and claimed that Mamdani probably did not speak about this particular aunt. “South Asians often call even their parents’ cousins, second cousins, third cousins, and also their parents’ friends ‘aunts.’ So this isn’t such a simple open-and-shut case. If you’re South Asian, you’d know who the aunties are,” one said.
