National

Democracy

Opinion

Satara Uthayakumaran Writer November 6, 2025 — 7.51pm

For most of my life, politics has felt like something that belonged to someone else. To the well connected. To the “born to lead”. To those whose last names open doors that others have to knock on for generations.

As a woman of colour, I’ve watched politics through both pride and distance – proud of every “first,” but aware of how lonely and fragile those firsts can be.

So when Zohran Mamdani was elected New York City’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor, and Ghazala Hashmi became Virginia’s first Muslim woman lieutenant governor, I felt something shift. Not just for representation, but for power itself.

Because their victories weren’t about elites finally letting new faces in. They were about o

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