This woman from Lahore moved New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani to tears

A video of their emotional conversation in Urdu is making us tear up too!

Images Staff
03 Jan, 2026
DAWN

New York City’s newly appointed mayor, Zohran Mamdani, spent the days before his January 1 inauguration meeting the people who helped elect him to run one of the biggest and most consequential cities in the world.

On December 14, the then-mayor-elect met with 142 New Yorkers to ask them about their hopes for the incoming administration. One of those New Yorkers was an adorable woman from Lahore who gave him enough well wishes to make a grown man cry.

The conversation started as so many do for Pakistanis who go abroad, with Samina apologising for her broken English and telling Mamdani she’d brought notes on what to say. He assured her it was fine. She then congratulated him on his electoral victory, telling him, “Your empathy deserves to lead [sic].”

She thanked the mayor-elect for “creating softness in people’s hearts in a world that is not united” and asked him to “continue to be our light and hope during this difficult time”. Samina said when she and her family go outside, they see happier faces now that Mamdani has been elected.

When the mayor asked her name, she also told him she was originally from Pakistan, to which he responded immediately with “Aap Pakistan se ho?” or you’re from Pakistan?

Then, as if a great burden had been lifted off her shoulders, Samina began to open up, first asking the mayor if he spoke Urdu — he said he could speak but wasn’t able to write — then telling him her daughter had mentioned he could but that she couldn’t believe it initially.

When Mamdani asked where in Pakistan she was from, Samina said she was from Lahore and he said he had visited once, calling it “a beautiful city”. She countered, saying, “[Lahore] is a beautiful city, but people like you make New York a beautiful city. It already had beautiful buildings, but you’ve put beauty in people’s hearts.”

Telling him his ability to change hearts was a gift from God, Samina said she was so happy to sit and talk to him that she didn’t even know what to say. He chuckled and told her, “Jo bhi bolna hai” (Whatever you’d like to say).

Mamdani‘s eyes welled up as Samina told him he couldn’t hide the truth and goodness in them from anyone and that she’d pray for his success. After the interaction, he needed a minute to wipe away his tears before talking to another person.

Mamdani even mentioned the sweet conversation in his inaugural speech. “I spoke to a Pakistani aunty named Samina, who told me this movement had fostered something too rare, softness in people‘s hearts. As she said to me in Urdu, logon ke dil badal gaye hain (people’s hearts have changed).”