Who are Zohran Mamdani’s parents? Award-winning Indian-American director Mira Nair and a political commentator
What we know about Zohran Mamdani’s parents, Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani
- New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Kwame Mamdani, was born in Kampala, Uganda, to Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair and Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani.
- Nair is known for films like Salaam Bombay!, which won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes and received an Academy Award nomination.
- Mahmood, a political scientist, is regarded as one of Africa’s most influential scholars of colonialism and political violence.
- Nair and Mahmood met in 1989 while Nair was in Uganda doing research for Mississippi Masala, and two years later, Zohran was born.
- Both Nair and Mahmood have faced scrutiny and criticism from pro-Israel advocacy groups due to their public stances on Israel and Palestine.