Stupid stupid stupid
Zohran Mamdani's Wife Sparks Outrage
Mamdani's wife wore $630 boots to his swearing in ceremony, and absolutely no one is impressed with her tone deaf choice of clothing.
Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City's 112th mayor on January 1, 2026, shortly after midnight. The ceremony highlighted his "everyman" persona and commitment to policies aimed at equity, such as taxing the rich more heavily and implementing rent freezes.
However, attention quickly shifted to his wife, Rama Duwaji, a 28-year-old artist, animator, and illustrator known for her outspoken criticism of US imperialism. During the event, she appeared to wear $630 Miista "Shelley Boots", luxury lace-up boots made from vegetable-tanned cow leather, featuring a memory foam insole and a 6 cm heel,along with a black coat, skirt, and gleaming earrings.
This wasn't the first instance of her sporting high-end fashion; during his November 2025 victory speech, Duwaji wore a denim top by Palestinian-Jordanian designer Zeid Hijazi and earrings from upscale NYC jeweler Eddie Borgo, whose pieces can retail for over $46,000.
The New York Post article framing this as a controversy sparked backlash on social media, with critics accusing the couple of hypocrisy. Comments included calling Mamdani's agenda a "scam" for pushing rent policies that could harm housing while his wife flaunts expensive items, labeling it "performative socialism," and sarcastically noting that seizing the means of production might make such luxuries accessible to all.
This was arguably a stupid idea, opting for visibly luxury attire at a high-profile event, because Mamdani's entire 2025 mayoral campaign was built on appealing to working-class and low-income New Yorkers in one of the world's most expensive cities.
His platform emphasized affordability and shifting power away from the wealthy, with promises like freezing rents for a million rent-stabilized tenants, creating city-owned grocery stores to combat high food costs, making buses fare-free, establishing universal childcare, cracking down on exploitative landlords and corporations, and funding it all via higher taxes on the rich and big businesses.
These ideas resonated with voters frustrated by inequality, positioning him as a champion for the "working class" against elite interests.
Flaunting $630 boots (roughly a week's wages for many minimum-wage workers in NYC) and other designer pieces at his inauguration risks undercutting that narrative, making him appear out of touch or hypocritical—like a "limousine liberal" or "champagne socialist" who preaches equity but enjoys privileges unaffordable to his base.
It invites easy attacks from opponents, erodes trust among supporters who expect authenticity, and could complicate implementing his agenda by fueling perceptions of insincerity in a politically divided city. In socialist politics especially, optics matter; similar missteps have derailed figures like Bernie Sanders' allies when personal wealth clashes with anti-inequality rhetoric.