Socialist Mamdani Clarifies Aunt’s NYC Subway Experience Amid 9/11 Controversy

Socialist candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday provided a clarification on an anecdote that sparked controversy on social media, regarding an anecdote he told about his “aunt” not using the subway in New York due to post-9/11 Islamophobia.

“I was talking about Zehra fuhi, my father’s cousin, who died a few years ago,” Mamdani told reporters Monday, using the term “fuhi” which, according to the New York Post, means paternal aunt in Hindi and Urdu, after social media users raised questions about the veracity of her story.

“I want to speak in memory of my aunt who stopped taking the subway after 9/11 because she didn’t feel safe in her hijab,” Mamdani, holding back tears, told a crowd on October 24, while outlining his concerns about Islamophobia and suggesting that criticism of his anti-Israel stances are rooted in contempt for his Muslim faith.

Shortly after this clip hit the Internet, a wave of criticism hit from conservatives and Internet sleuths who poked holes in the story and suggested that Mamdani had embellished it, pointing to her only direct biological aunt, Dr. Masuma Mamdani, indicating on her LinkedIn that she had worked and probably lived in Tanzania from January 2000 to December 2003. Additionally, publicly available photos of Masuma Mamdani do not show her. wear a hijab.

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Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for mayor of New York, speaks to reporters on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Monday, October 27, 2025. (Fox News Digital/Deirdre Heavey)

The controversy reached the White House in the form of a post on from Vice President JD Vance who expressed skepticism about this story.

“According to Zohran, the real victim of 9/11 was his aunt who (allegedly) looked bad,” the vice president wrote.

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Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for mayor of New York, speaks during an interview on “The Story with Martha MacCallum” on Fox News on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Mamdani’s father, Mahmood, who Zohran Mamdani said is the deceased aunt’s cousin, was criticized during the campaign for his past controversial statements as a professor at Columbia University, including a claim that Hitler was inspired by Abraham Lincoln, which resurfaced on social media in recent days.

Mahmood Mamdani also serves on the advisory board of an anti-Israel organization that supports boycotts and sanctions against Israel, and regularly accuses the Israeli government of committing “genocide,” Fox News Digital reported this summer.

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Democratic candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks to supporters at a poll kickoff event in Prospect Park on Sunday, August 17, 2025. (Deirdre Heavey/Fox News Digital)

“Suicide bombings must be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarity,” the elder Mamdani wrote in his 2004 book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror.

“Above all, we must recognize the suicide bomber as a category of soldier.”

Zohran Mamdani has in recent days pushed back against criticism of his various anti-Israel policies and statements dating back to his university days and suggested that these criticisms were rooted in anti-Muslim bigotry.

“Every Muslim’s dream is simply to be treated the same as any other New Yorker,” Mamdani posted on Friday with a video viewed at least 24 million times. “And yet, for too long, we have been told to ask for less than that and to tolerate hatred and intolerance in the shadows. No more.”