New York City's first lady is preparing to fly to a Portuguese manor house for a $4,300-and-up Islamic calligraphy retreat, her third European getaway with the same group this year, while critics say she treats the role like a vacation package.
Rama Duwaji, the 29-year-old wife of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, will serve as "artist-in-residence" at a retreat called "Journey through Islamic Calligraphy," organized by a group called The Women Sanctuary. Two sessions are scheduled at a manor house in Arcos de Valdevez, in the countryside near Porto: September 16, 21 and September 25, 30. Tickets run from $4,300 for a shared room to $5,260 for a private room with a private bathroom, the New York Post reported.
The venue boasts a heated outdoor pool, a heated indoor pool, and landscaped gardens. The retreat's website promises days spent "exploring the rich history of Islam in Portugal, uncovering the traces of a remarkable legacy still woven into the landscape," along with illustration workshops led by Duwaji, picnics, poolside hangouts, walks, and sessions for "spiritual reflection."
It is a comfortable itinerary for the wife of a mayor whose administration faces mounting legal and political headaches back home, from an ethics complaint over alleged misuse of city resources to courtroom defeats on signature tax proposals.
Portugal is not Duwaji's first trip abroad with The Women Sanctuary this year. Around the time of America's 250th birthday celebration, she traveled to Mallorca, Spain, for an Islamic "spiritual wellness" retreat with the same organization. Then, from July 9 to July 14, she attended a second retreat in Corsica, France, honoring what the group described as "the legacy of Mary, the most honored woman in the Quran."
The Portugal sessions would make three European retreats in roughly three months, a pace that drew sharp criticism from elected officials in the city she is supposed to call home.
Queens City Councilwoman Joann Ariola told the Post:
"Former first ladies spent their time visiting schools and doing charitable work. Being Zohran Mamdani's wife must be very stressful because this first lady is more interested in vacations than she is in matters that affect New Yorkers."
Former Queens City Councilman Bob Holden was blunter:
"They're acting like jet-setters when they're supposed to be for New Yorkers but they're anything but. She's a good example of the hypocrisy of this administration."
Neither criticism came from political opponents looking for a fight on policy. Both came from Queens, the borough Mamdani represented before becoming mayor, and both zeroed in on the same disconnect: a first lady who appears more engaged with overseas retreats than with the city her husband governs.
The Portugal retreat is not the only international travel on Duwaji's September calendar. She is also slated to visit Lebanon and Syria, two countries the U.S. State Department has placed on its "Do Not Travel" list for Americans. Duwaji has relatives in both nations.
That planned trip already produced an embarrassing episode for City Hall. Officials initially claimed Duwaji would receive an NYPD security detail for the Lebanon and Syria visit. The NYPD denied that claim. Mayor Mamdani then blamed his own staff for a "communication snafu." The Post did not report whether the NYPD denial prompted any change to the travel plans.
The security-detail confusion fits a pattern. Mamdani has defended his wife against public criticism by arguing she is not an official member of the administration, a distinction that does little to explain why City Hall was arranging police protection for her overseas travel in the first place.
A Staten Island judge recently blocked one of Mamdani's marquee tax proposals after the city exposed the personal data of 900,000 homeowners, another self-inflicted wound from an administration that keeps tripping over its own operations.
Duwaji, described as a Syrian-American animator, illustrator, and ceramist, has drawn scrutiny before, not just for her travel but for her public statements. In a 2015 Tumblr post, she wrote:
"American soldiers fighting in imperialist wars are not brave nor are they fighting for anyone's freedom. They are mercilessly slaughtering 3rd world civilians and fighting to maintain American hegemony."
That post resurfaced during Mamdani's rise in city politics and has remained a sore point. Combined with her repeated overseas retreats, it paints a picture of a first lady whose worldview and priorities sit well outside the mainstream of the city she nominally represents.
Mamdani's administration has faced scrutiny on multiple fronts this year, including a lawsuit from immigrant grocers who compared the mayor's city-owned supermarket plan to Walmart, and a separate controversy in which the mayor mourned an accused killer at Rikers while the victim's family demanded answers. Each episode reinforces the same impression: an administration more comfortable with ideological gestures than with the practical demands of governing eight million people.
Several basic questions remain unresolved. The Post's reporting does not clarify whether Duwaji receives compensation for her "artist-in-residence" role, who covers the retreat fees and travel costs, or whether any public money is involved. City Hall has not addressed the Portugal trip specifically.
Those gaps matter. If the first lady is spending taxpayer resources, or benefiting from arrangements made possible by her husband's office, New Yorkers deserve a straight answer. If she is spending her own money, saying so would be simple. The silence invites the obvious conclusion.
New York's taxpayers are stuck with rising costs, crowded subways, and an administration that keeps inventing new ways to spend their money. The first lady, meanwhile, is booking her third European retreat of the summer. The disconnect is not subtle, and no amount of calligraphy can cover it up.
