Iranians warned you.
Instead of listening, we were attacked, gaslit, or ignored.
New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's aunt was a supporter of Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, a US-educated Tehran University professor and state-linked ideologue claimed on Friday citing Mamdani's father.
"I met Mr. Mamdani’s father twenty years ago at a conference in New York. I was already familiar with his books and his belief in Twelver Shiism. When he realized we were Iranian and religious, he said, 'I have a sister who always criticizes me for two things: first, that I don’t say my prayers properly; second, that I don’t show the devotion to Khomeini that I’m supposed to," Foad Izadi said in an interview with Khate Energy online outlet.
The aunt Izadi talks about does not seem to be same person Mamdani mentioned in his controversial story in the final days of New York City’s mayoral race.
“I want to speak to the memory of my aunt, who stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab,” he said in a speech last month, choking back tears.
However, he later explained he was speaking about "Zehra fuhi, my father’s cousin, who passed away a few years ago,” after critics found unveiled pictures of his real aunt.