"On a cold Saturday morning, a little over a week before the New York City mayoral election in November, I was at a park in Queens to speak at a fundraiser for Asiyah Women's Centre, the oldest and largest shelter providing support for American Muslim female victims of domestic violence. Vendors selling everything from chai to embroidered Palestinian handicrafts turned out to support the fundraiser; a DJ blasted music and artists painted children's faces with the colours of Halloween."
"I had not asked him anything about the mayoral race but I knew exactly who he meant, because like Cher, Madonna, Beyonce and Bjork, our mayor-elect is simply Zohran to many of us. And not because we can't pronounce his family name I'm looking at you Andrew Cuomo and all who seem to deliberately mangle Mamdani. In New York City, and everywhere else I've been, 2025 was the year when everybody learned his name."
On a cold Saturday morning in Queens I spoke at a fundraiser for Asiyah Women's Centre, the oldest and largest shelter supporting American Muslim female victims of domestic violence. Vendors sold chai and embroidered Palestinian handicrafts; a DJ played music and artists painted children's faces for Halloween. I chose a protein-heavy kebab because of my lifting routine and the vendor identified the kebab as one of Zohran's favourites. Zohran became widely known in New York City in 2025 and is commonly called simply Zohran. He is being sworn in on the steps of City Hall with a 40,000-person celebration in Lower Manhattan, marking 2026 as his debut year. I have lived in New York for 23 years, spending 19 of those years in Harlem in a rent-stabilised brownstone apartment.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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