NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani faces backlash for claiming his aunt feared wearing her hijab after 9/11.

Question

In the final days of New York City’s mayoral race, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani has faced pushback over a story he told about his aunt being afraid to wear her hijab while riding the subway after the September 11, 2001, attacks. https://cnn.it/432IAcr

Answer 1

In October 2025, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani faced backlash for a story he shared about his “aunt.” He said that after the 9/11 attacks, his aunt stopped taking the subway because she did not feel safe wearing her hijab. According to The New York Post, a right-leaning outlet, Mamdani told this story during a campaign event to highlight the fear and discrimination many Muslim women faced after 9/11. However, later reports questioned whether his story was completely accurate. Some sources claimed that the woman he mentioned was actually his father’s cousin, who lived outside the United States during the attacks and did not regularly wear a hijab. Because of this, the claim is partly true but also misleading, since the emotional message about Islamophobia is valid, but the personal details seem unclear or exaggerated.

https://nypost.com/2025/10/27/us-news/zohran-mamdanis-hijab-wearing-aunt-who-feared-for-her-safety-post-9-11-revealed-as-his-dads-second-cousin/

Answer 2

When researching this claim I found a few things. Zohran Mamdani did tell a story about how his aunt was afraid to wear a hijab on the subway post 9/11 due to Islamaphobia all across the country, but especially in NYC after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This statement did face backlash. Many republican nationals, including vice president JD Vance mocked Mamdani's story. Mostly due to the fact that it wasnt actually Mamdani's "aunt". It was his fathers cousin. Mamdani is facing scrutiny for lying about the story, even though it was a relatively minor lie. Many republicans are even going as far to say that Mamdani cant be trusted because he is seen "lying" on this occasion. Mamdanis initial reasoning behind telling the story was his concern of Islamophobia and hate in New York City
 

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6384160055112

This is a video of Mamdani clearing up confusion on his statement. In this interview, he is defending his claim and stating he refers to his fathers cousin as his aunt and thats who he was referring to in his initial statement.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/zohran-mamdani-islam-cuomo

In this video, Mamdani is delivering a speech on the importance of his islamic faith. This speech is where he tells the story of his "aunt" and how she faced Islamophobia after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mamdani-forced-clarify-relative-invoked-viral-islamophobia-anecdote-questions-swirl

This article mainly talks about how many people poked holes in Mamdanis story and found some irregularities. Many republicans are criticizing Mamdani for lying about the story and embellishing the story.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/28/politics/zohran-mamdani-sept-11-aunt

This article talks about how Mamdani is passionate about his Islamic faith, and how some of his family members have had to face Islamophobia in the past.

Fox news is a known right leaning news outlet. This could lead them to speaking about Mamdani more negatively, considering he is the democratic candidate for the NYC Mayor. They also may favor Andrew Cuomo, the Republican candidate for mayor.

CNN is a commonly left leaning news outlet. This could lead them to defending Mamdani more so than Fox would. The language also seemed to be more positive when speaking about Mamdani compared to Fox News.

Both news outlets state how Mamdani is facing backlash for his telling of the story and about how he twisted the truth in a way.

There is not really any evidence that undermines the claim I am fact checking. Only the fact that the main reason Mamdani is being criticized is because he lied about part of the story, not because he told the story.

Answer 3

This claim is true, Zohran Mamdani received backlash for his claim of his aunt being scared to wear her hijab after 9/11. In an article by the New York Post, it is stated that his aunt “his fathers cousin” was fearful to ride the subways after 9/11 because of the looks she received wearing it. According to the article, one of his opponents, Andrew Cuomo and even the vice president of the United States, JD Vance were some notable figures that criticized his statement. Another article by the Hindustan Times explains the backlash received is mostly because he is not talking about a biological aunt and instead a distant family member. The way he is telling his story of prejudice seems as if the person is closer to him like a direct aunt, and not a distant relative like she actually is. The Hindustan Times writes, “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%.” His opponents and their supporters are quick to call him out, as he is currently leading the early voting polls by quite a significant margin. 

 

Sources:

https://nypost.com/2025/10/27/us-news/zohran-mamdanis-hijab-wearing-aunt-who-feared-for-her-safety-post-9-11-revealed-as-his-dads-second-cousin/

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/what-happened-to-zohran-mamdanis-aunt-after-9-11-controversy-explained-amid-nyc-mayor-polls-101761703142989.html

Answer 4

After doing some reaserch I found that Zohran Mamdani had an "aunt" that was affected by the 9/11 attacks because she wears a hijab, it effected the way pepople treated her and she had to quit taking the subway because of this. Mamdani uses this as an example for the islamophobia that takes place in new york. His "aunt" is actually his dad's cousin. But he states the she had held the role of aunt in his life. People on the internet suchas JD Vance were saying Mamdani was more or less saying that the islamic people had it the hardest rather than the people who died in the attack, wich is not true. This claim is true, he faced push back for the story he told about his aunt.

https://nypost.com/2025/10/27/us-news/zohran-mamdanis-hijab-wearing-aunt-who-feared-for-her-safety-post-9-11-revealed-as-his-dads-second-cousin/ 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/28/politics/zohran-mamdani-sept-11-aunt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWuY_vYn-Fk