Rama Duwaji, Mayor Mamdani’s wife, will be heading to Syria and Lebanon without an NYPD detail next month as she visits family, city officials said.
“There was a miscommunication,” Mamdani said on PIX11 when asked about reports his wife would be bringing a detail with her. “She has not taken that trip. When she takes that trip, it will be without any NYPD detail.”
The two countries are on Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory from the U.S. Department of State — the highest safety warning.
“The NYPD does not send officers to countries with level 4 travel advisories for discretionary reasons such as personal travel,” a spokesperson for the police department said in a statement.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, are pictured at his ceremonial swearing in at City Hall on Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Duwaji was born in Texas, is of Syrian descent, and spent much of her childhood in Dubai. She’s also spent time in Beirut, having completed a residency there in 2019. She and Mamdani wed in February 2025 in a City Hall ceremony.
Duwaji, an artist, has been both scrutinized and idolized to varying degrees by the public and the press, and she has mainly tried to stay out of the public eye.
“My focus isn’t on being a public figure, but continuing my work with care and responsibility, and allowing my art to speak for itself,” Duwaji told the outlet Hyperallergic in an April interview.