{"id":103585,"date":"2025-10-29T05:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T05:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/103585\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T05:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T05:05:07","slug":"what-happened-to-zohran-mamdanis-aunt-after-9-11-controversy-explained-amid-nyc-mayor-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/103585\/","title":{"rendered":"What happened to Zohran Mamdani’s aunt after 9\/11? Controversy explained amid NYC mayor polls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During a press event in The Bronx, mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani<\/a> recounted how his aunt stopped riding the subway after the September 11 attacks because she \u201cdid not feel safe in her hijab.\u201d However, social-media users and political opponents challenged his narrative, pointing out that his only biological aunt lived in Tanzania in 2001 and did not wear a hijab.<\/p>\n

\"Zohran Zohran Mamdani’s Muslim identity has purportedly come under attack as NYC votes to choose its next mayor. (AFP) Zohran Mamdani’s clarification<\/p>\n

Amid the backlash, Mamdani responded by saying he was referring to a distant relative named Zehra fuhi (in Urdu\/Hindi \u201cfuhi\u201d means paternal aunt) \u2014 not his legal aunt, explaining the discrepancy.<\/p>\n

Mamdani addressed his statements by claiming that the criticism was a diversion, accusing his political opponents of Islamophobia, while arguing that the bigger problem was the prejudice that Muslim New Yorkers had to deal with.<\/p>\n

Read More | Who is Siraj Wahhaj? Zohran Mamdani under fire for posing with Imam linked to 1993 World Trade Center attack<\/a><\/p>\n

Opponents’ social media reactions say the switch casts doubt on Mamdani\u2019s credibility, especially given the emotional weight of referencing 9\/11.<\/p>\n

Vice President JD Vance<\/a> mocked the remark on X, saying, \u201cAccording to Zohran, the real victim of 9\/11 was his auntie who got some (allegedly) bad looks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversy follows earlier backlash over Mamdani’s repeated, nearly identical 9\/11 anniversary posts that appeared \u201ccut-and-pasted\u201d from previous years, according to social media users.<\/p>\n

How could the controversy impact the mayoral elections?<\/p>\n

Looking at the reaction on social media, accuracy in personal anecdotes is being treated as a litmus test for trustworthiness by voters, especially among voters deeply affected by the 9\/11 attacks<\/a>. The controversy risks overshadowing Mamdani\u2019s policy agenda on rent freeze, free bus fares and other progressive and economic reforms for the city at a critical juncture in the race.<\/p>\n

Read More | Zohran Mamdani\u2019s campaign took $13,000 in illegal donations? Mother-in-law, others land in hot water<\/a><\/p>\n

Early voting is already underway. As per recent poll results from the Manhattan Institute, Mamdani is in the lead with 43% of voters’ support; Cuomo is closing in on the lead with 28% while Silwa is growing slowly and is now at 19%<\/p>\n

Mamdani, if elected on November 5, would be the first Muslim mayor of New York City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During a press event in The Bronx, mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani recounted how his aunt stopped riding the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,11487,9991,68064,43,40,38,41,39,68065,9992,68066],"class_list":["post-103585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-jd-vance","tag-mamdani","tag-mayoral-election","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-vice-president","tag-zohran","tag-zohran-mamdani-911"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}