Zohran Mamdani He is the son of the Indian filmmaker Mira Nair and of the academic Mahmood Modelpart of the Indian diaspora in Uganda. He was born in Kampala (Uganda) in 1991 and when Nair and the professor of anthropology and international relations at Columbia settled in New York he was 7 years old.
After completing primary school at a prestigious private school in Manhattan He went to one of the most reputable public institutes in the city in the Bronxwhere one of the professors who most influenced him was a brother of Elena Kagan, today a Supreme Court judge. There he joined a team of cricketwhere he made friends that established his roots in the community of New Yorkers with roots in South Asia.
Mamdani went to college at the progressive Bowdoin Collegein Maine, where he graduated in african studies and wrote a thesis on Frantz Fanona theorist of postcolonialism, and about the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He was in charge of the establishment of the group on his campus Students for Justice in Palestine.
Back in New York he became involved in the community activismserving as an advisor to citizens at risk of eviction and made his first steps in the rap.
Inspired by the campaign Bernie Sanders In 2016 he enrolled in the Democratic Socialists of Americaa left-wing organization that was established in 1982 and that in recent years has managed to bring nine legislators, including Mamdani, to the state assembly, where they represent one million New Yorkers.
Previous work on campaigns
Before arriving at that Assembly, Mamdani worked on two municipal council candidate campaigns: one for a civil rights lawyer and another for Khader El-Yateem, a Palestinian-American religious man. Those two candidates lost their races but the pastor came second, with 30% of the vote, and Mamdani has said that he learned that his policies, despite being “different” from what the majority said, had a “place.”
Since arriving in Albany, Mamdani has demonstrated an understanding of the importance of action. Shortly after arriving at his seat he spent 15 days hunger strike to support the taxi drivers in their fight for the city to alleviate the burden of debt due to medallion prices once the emergence of services such as Uber They triggered the crisis among taxi drivers. That same 2021 he was arrested in a protest demanding a moratorium on evictions and last year he was arrested in another protest against one of the votes of rent increase which was approved by the board appointed by Eric Adams.
At the center of his campaign have been both his roots and his faith as well as his activism in favor of women’s rights. Palestine. Defender of the movement Boycott, divestment and sanctions a Israela few days after the attacks Hamas on October 7, 2023, he was arrested in front of the house of Chuck SchumerDemocratic leader in the Senate, Jewish, an important Washington ally of Israel and backed by the Jewish lobby AIPAC. Mamdani already then denounced the risk of “imminent genocide” in Palestine.
The son of a filmmaker, Mamdani has shown that he understands, like few other democratic politicians, the power of image and both his charisma and its demonstrated ease in interpersonal politics like your social media domain and one innovative digital strategy have allowed him to organically create a model and effective campaign.
Viral actions
One of the first videos that demonstrated this was the one he made interviewing New Yorkers to understand why they voted for Donald Trump. But he has also gone into the bath on the first day of the year on Corey Island to illustrate his proposal for “freeze” rentshas toured the island on foot talking to citizens or organized gymkhanas, all conveniently collected and viralized. By the time it reached the covers or sets of major media outlets and national programs, it was already a digital star with his videos on social networks and his time on the most prominent podcasts and streams.
Mamdani married the Syrian-American artist earlier this year Rama Duwaji. They have been living in Queens in a rent-stabilized apartment for which they currently pay $2,300 a month, below the median asking price of $4,600 in Manhattan.
You are Mamdani Arsenal fan and has warned the FIFA against its strategy of establishing “dynamic” prices for tickets to the World Cup, which will be partially held next year in the US and will have the final in the New York area. Mamdani wants fixed prices, resale limits and a number of entries dedicated to local audiences to ensure it is accessible.
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