New York City’s first lady Rama Duwaji, the wife of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, was an “artist-in-residence” at an expensive Islamic wellness retreat that has urged the destruction of Israel and called for “Palestine” to be cleansed of its “oppressors”.
As reported by the Washington Free Beacon, Duwaji attended the “Journey through Islamic Calligraphy” retreat in Porto, Portugal, organised by the Women Sanctuary over the summer.
Guests paid approximately $4,300 for a shared room and $5,260 for a private room with a private bathroom for five nights at an 18th-century Portuguese castle, according to the Beacon.
Women Sanctuary has repeatedly posted extreme anti-Israel messages on social media, including in October 2025 when the group wrote on Instagram: “Abolish the colonial apartheid state of Israel. Free Palestine.”
In May 2024, it posted “from the river to the sea” — a slogan that many Jewish organisations view as a call for the elimination of Israel.
In September 2024, the group published a prayer asking Allah to “cleanse Palestine from tyranny and from its oppressors”.
Another post, in March 2025, called for the “complete and rightful restoration” of the land to its “true stewards”.
The Women Sanctuary’s programming has also included material focused heavily on Palestinian grievances.
In 2024, it promoted a reading of Men in the Sun by Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, describing him as a “martyr”.
Kanafani was a leading figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a US-designated terrorist organisation, and was killed in a 1972 Beirut bomb explosion reportedly prepared by Mossad.
The PFLP carried out a series of attacks and aircraft hijackings, including the coordinated hijacking of three aircraft in 1970.
Duwaji has been criticised for sharing photos and liking posts of figures associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In 2017, she posted a photo to Tumblr that showed the Palestinian plane hijacker and terrorist Leila Khaled, with the caption, “If it does good for my cause, I’ll be happy to accept death.”
The latest finding comes as her husband, Mayor Mamdani, unveiled his antisemitism strategy in New York. He has allocated $7.4 million to protect the city’s Jewish community including increased security outside synagogues, but the strategy was widely criticised by Jewish leaders in the city.
In March this year, Mamdani said his wife’s social media activity did not represent the views of City Hall after reports claimed that she liked Instagram posts appearing to praise the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Duwaji would not comment on the allegations when contacted.
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