Weeks later, New York City is still in party mode after celebrating the Knicks’ first NBA Championship win in 53 years. And as the dust and glitter settles, there’s been time to ponder some of the dynamics that revealed themselves at the post- parade ceremony at City Hall, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani presented each player with a key to the city. The energy was high, the speeches were galvanizing, and the fan gear was on point. And if we’ve learned anything from Mamdani’s formal appearances thus far, we know that his partner, Rama Duwaji, would flex her personal style. Duwaji, a Syrian American artist and illustrator, took to the stage in a look that Vogue aptly claimed “channeled the DIY spirit of downtown New York” — she wore an upcycled one-shoulder Knicks T-shirt dress paired with a black skirt, Nike Air Rift sandals and orange pompom earrings.And while any politician’s significant other is open to scrutiny from the fashion police, it wasn’t Duwaji’s style sensibilities that were called into question — although there’s been incessant chatter about her choice to wear designer clothing to certain events, even if it’s borrowed. It was because her shoulders were exposed on a hot summer day in New York City.And because of that, certain men — and women — felt the need to indulge in a little good old-fashioned slut-shaming. I’ll spare you some of the outright disgusting things that were said about Duwaji’s appearance, though they wouldn’t surprise most women who grew up with social media. What I find particularly worthy of examination, though, is how much backlash she gets for almost anything she wears. A New York Post story described the cool, campy Knicks outfit as a “disheveled dress made from a pile of Knicks T-shirts and a pair of widely loathed sneaker-sandals.” One right-leaning Democrat called Duwaji “trashy” and “classless,” and one (seemingly a Donald Trump supporter based on the profile) called her “creepy,” questioning whether her outfit was “appropriate” for a woman representing the people of New York City. Not only have the comments been dramatic and baseless, they’re also hypocritical.Last September, in the thick of Mamdani’s mayoral run, I wrote about the clownish Islamophobia the Muslim then-candidate faced on a daily basis. Through threats of bacon (yes, bacon) and edited images of the Statue of Liberty in a burqa, the racist sentiments contained a common thread: the baseless “fear” that the mayor’s religious beliefs didn’t align with those of New York. I distinctly remember conservatives expressing concern that Mamdani would “impose Sharia law” on New York City and that women would be expected to cover up from head to toe (as one clever content creator reminds us here). These men, it appeared, were suddenly concerned about protecting women’s rights and championing their right to show skin.Now, a few months later, that same demographic is appalled that Duwaji has decided to bare her shoulders during a parade in the height of summer.Is the issue now that Duwaji is dressing too “liberally”? Or, was the concern about being forced to adopt a culture that wasn’t their own — and more about anyone brown, socialist, or just different than themselves having power and influence? Duwaji is not, of course, the first politician’s wife in the public eye to be scrutinized for her choice in clothing. We’ve seen the unnecessary and frankly racist commentary arise around former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, and former NYC first lady Chirlane McCray.Under a picture of Duwaji at the parade, one commenter on the New York Post piece asked, “How come some radical Muslim isn’t trying to assassinate Rama Duwaji for ignoring Muslim modesty rule?”As a Muslim woman who doesn’t wear the hijab or dress modestly, I know how the way I dress is first politicized against me, and then my community. The way I dress is nothing more than my own form of self-expression, and does not negate the validity of Muslim American women who dress more conservatively. We exist on a spectrum and shouldn’t have to make ourselves more palatable to puritanical, white Christian culture to feel safe in this country. Whether Duwaji dressed more modestly, wore a hijab, or even posed nude for a magazine cover like our current U.S. first lady, the issue would not be in her clothing (or lack thereof), but rather that she dared be a Muslim woman of color in public, making a choice about her own body. While I’m positive this will not be the last time Duwaji is fodder for scrutiny as some people desperately cling to notions of patriarchal white supremacy, my hope is that she continues doing what she’s doing now: whatever the hell she wants.