Rama Duwaji, wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is reportedly co-hosting a sold-out women's spiritual retreat on the French island of Corsica that casts the Virgin Mary as "a Palestinian woman giving birth under occupation", the second Mediterranean getaway in as many weeks for the city's first lady, who skipped America's 250th birthday celebration to attend an Islamic wellness gathering in Spain.
The Corsica retreat, titled "Mary In The Quran," runs through July 14 and costs attendees between $3,100 and $5,260 per person, the New York Post first reported. The event is organized by The Women Sanctuary, a Muslim-focused travel group that blends guided Islamic learning with personal reflection at high-end destinations.
The framing of Mary, revered by Christians as the mother of Jesus Christ, as a Palestinian under occupation has drawn sharp criticism. Rachel Fulton Brown, a history professor at the University of Chicago, told the Post: "Trying to pretend that now is 2,000 years ago is not helpful to anyone. It's not going to help us deal with the situation in Gaza."
Duwaji, 29, first drew attention over the Fourth of July holiday when conservative commentator Arynne Wexler posted photos on X showing her boarding a flight from Newark International Airport to Palma, Mallorca. There, she served as "artist in residence" at The Women Sanctuary's sold-out "Plants of the Quran" retreat, Fox News Digital reported.
That eight-hour flight carried Duwaji away from America's 250th Independence Day celebrations, an event of obvious civic significance for the spouse of the mayor of the nation's largest city.
Queens Councilwoman Joann Ariola, a Republican, did not hold back. She told the Post:
"Nothing says 'America 250' quite like skipping the celebration for a Mediterranean vacation, but I am not surprised because she has made her hatred for America very evident."
Staten Island Councilman Frank Morano added his own rebuke, as Breitbart reported: "It's disappointing that the First Lady chose to be overseas instead of taking part in one of the biggest civic events our city and country will mark this year."
The Mallorca retreat cost $3,400 per guest and ran from Wednesday through Monday. The Corsica event that followed is even pricier. Between the two sold-out gatherings, Duwaji has spent roughly two weeks at luxury Mediterranean retreats while New Yorkers dealt with summer heat, a pattern that has already drawn scrutiny.
The Women Sanctuary's website describes the Virgin Mary, referred to as Maryam, as "the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an," cited 34 times, with an entire chapter, Surah Maryam, revealed in her name. "Her story is not only one of divine motherhood, but of unwavering faith, sacred retreat, and total devotion to Allah," the site states.
That theological description is one thing. Grafting a modern political narrative onto a biblical and Quranic figure is another. The retreat's promotional framing, casting Mary as a Palestinian under occupation, imports the language of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a religious context that predates it by millennia. One attendee account published in Vogue Arabia captured the tone: "It is not lost on us that Mary, too, was a Palestinian woman giving birth under occupation."
The retreat promises daily organic meals with locally sourced ingredients, communal prayers, devotional practices, lectures, workshops, and free time for prayer, meditation, journaling, relaxing by the pool, or exploring Corsica. For more than $4,000 a head, one would hope the croissants are fresh.
Duwaji's Mediterranean travels land against a backdrop of recurring controversy. The Washington Free Beacon previously reported that she shared anti-Israel posts on Tumblr, including a September 2017 post featuring a photo of Palestinian militant Leila Khaled. She also reportedly reposted content in 2015 calling U.S. soldiers people "mercilessly slaughtering 3rd world civilians."
In April, Duwaji publicly apologized for what she called offensive posts made as a teenager, saying she was "truly sorry" for the hurt they caused. She did not specify which posts she was addressing.
The apology did little to quiet critics, in part because the broader pattern has continued. Her husband, Mayor Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist who became the first Muslim mayor of New York City and the first sworn in on a Quran when he took office on January 1, 2026, with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders administering the oath, has faced his own backlash over pro-Palestinian positions and far-left immigration views.
Mamdani has broken with longstanding mayoral tradition on multiple occasions. His administration has also drawn fire for policy reversals, including a decision to scrap a plan for 580 new NYPD officers even as police unions warned of burnout and a looming summer crisis.
Fox News Digital reached out to both Mayor Mamdani's office and The Women Sanctuary for comment on the Corsica retreat. Neither responded.
One open question hangs over the entire episode: who is footing the bill? The retreats are not cheap. The Mallorca event ran $3,400 per guest; the Corsica event tops $5,000 at its highest tier. Duwaji, a Syrian American artist, earned less than $9,000 last year, and the couple reported zero charitable giving.
The Women Sanctuary website does not explicitly list Duwaji as a co-host for the Corsica event, though the New York Post reported her involvement. She was listed as artist in residence for the Mallorca gathering. The distinction matters, if she is a paid participant, a guest, or a host receiving compensation, the financial arrangement carries different implications for a sitting mayor's household.
The Post has also reported that the retreats have drawn scrutiny over connections to organizations accused of ties to Hamas, though details on that front remain thin.
Even setting aside the political framing of the Virgin Mary, the basic optics are damaging. The wife of New York's mayor spent America's 250th birthday on a resort island in Spain, then decamped to another resort island in France for a gathering that costs more than many New Yorkers earn in a month.
Mayor Mamdani himself has faced criticism for contradictory messaging on issues ranging from energy policy to public safety. His wife's travel schedule reinforces a portrait of a mayoral household more attuned to ideological circles abroad than to the city they were elected to serve.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Fox News contributor Joe Concha discussed Mamdani and what they described as "several Democrats' anti-America rhetoric around July 4 celebrations" on Fox News's "Hannity." The segment captured a growing frustration among New York Republicans that the city's leadership class treats patriotic observance as optional, or worse, as something to avoid.
New York City faces a $54 billion deficit. Its police force is stretched thin. Its mayor is a democratic socialist sworn in by Bernie Sanders. And its first lady is island-hopping through the Mediterranean at $4,000 a pop, lending her name to retreats that recast a figure sacred to billions of Christians as a prop for contemporary political grievance.
When the people running your city can't be bothered to show up for the country's birthday, it tells you everything about where their loyalties actually lie.
