Zara Rahim

Some Lesser Known Facts About Zara Rahim

• Zara Rahim was born to Bangladeshi immigrant parents and raised in South Florida, where she grew up as a first-generation Bangladeshi American.

  

• Her parents immigrated from Bangladesh to the United States in the early 1980s.

• Although Zara never met her maternal grandmother, Ruby, she feels deeply connected to her. Her grandmother passed away in early 1991 when Zara was just a few months old.

• Zara cherishes her grandmother Ruby’s surmadani, a traditional eyeliner stick from the late 1800s.

• Zara often reflects on her mother’s sacrifices as an immigrant, who travelled to Bangladesh with a newborn to bury her own mother while raising children in America and ensuring they stayed connected to their culture and heritage.

  

• In June 2010, Zara began a Social Business Fellowship at the Yunus Centre in Bangladesh, which lasted for three months.

• Her entry into politics began during Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, where she joined as an intern.

• In December 2011, Zara joined Obama for America, the official campaign organisation for Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection, as Florida Digital Content Director in Tampa.

• As the digital content director, she managed online voter registration and awareness campaigns while learning how to effectively use social media to engage and mobilise voters.

• After the success of Obama’s campaign, Rahim went on to work in the White House Office of Digital Strategy.

• In January 2013, Zara Rahim began working full-time in the Public Affairs Office of Mayor Bob Buckhorn in Tampa. She served in this position until July 2013.

• In July 2013, Zara joined the Office of Digital Strategy at the White House, working under the Executive Office of the President in Washington, D.C. She worked there until January 2014.

• In January 2014, Rahim joined Bully Pulpit Interactive, a leading digital marketing and communications agency in Washington, D.C., as an Associate. She worked there until November 2014.

• Zara Rahim worked in the Public Policy and Communications department at Uber in San Francisco and Los Angeles from November 2014 to June 2016.

• Zara worked in the Communications team for Hillary for America, Hillary Clinton‘s 2016 presidential campaign, from July 2016 to November 2016 in Brooklyn.

• From December 2016 to August 2018, she worked as the Director of Communications at Vogue in the Greater New York City Area.

• Zara worked as Head of Strategic Communications at The Wing from July 2018 to February 2020 in the New York City Metropolitan Area.

• In April 2020, Zara Rahim established herself as an independent communications consultant in New York.

• Her clients include A24, Mariah Carey, Netflix, Nike, Blacktag, Pillars Fund, and Slow Factory, for whom she provides strategic guidance on storytelling, brand strategy, and communications.

• In February 2025, Rahim began working with New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani as a senior adviser for his mayoral campaign.

  

• During the campaign, Zara guided Mamdani to focus on New York’s authentic, diverse communities, creating a grassroots movement that mobilised over 90,000 volunteers and engaged previously overlooked voters.

• Under her strategy, Mamdani’s campaign used TikTok and Instagram videos filmed during stops, where he spoke in Spanish and Hindi to connect with working-class residents.

• Rahim’s strategy reached immigrant communities often excluded from politics, including Bangladeshi and West African families. They felt represented when Mamdani visited their neighbourhoods and mosques.

• During the mayoral campaign, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made comments seen as Islamophobic. Rahim spoke on CNN and criticised him for trying to win over Muslim voters in a divisive way.

• On 4 November 2025, Mamdani was elected mayor and became New York’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor and its youngest mayor in over a century.

• Mamdani later named Zara Rahim to his all-female transition team alongside Lina Khan, Maria Torres-Springer, Grace Bonilla, and Melanie Hartzog.

• Zara Rahim is an avid traveller and often shares her travel experiences on social media.

  

• In an interview, Zara talked about how every summer her family travelled to Bangladesh instead of taking typical vacations, and how those trips later helped her connect with her roots and see her parents at their happiest.

• She is an avid animal lover and had a pet dog whom she lost in 2023.