UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and her Republican challenger, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, are trading accusations after Blakeman criticized the governor for wearing a hijab during a visit to an Islamic cultural center, a dispute that has expanded to include questions of religious respect, feminism and the approaching 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The controversy stems from Hochul’s visit Friday to the Islamic Cultural Center on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where she toured community spaces and covered her head while inside a worship area.
Hochul defended her decision, saying it was consistent with how she approaches visits to religious sites.
“I was invited as a guest, and I always wear the appropriate attire, whether I am going to a temple, whether I am going to an Orthodox community or whether I am going to a catholic church in the Vatican,” Hochul said.
Blakeman criticized the governor in a social media post featuring a photo captioned, “Hijab Hochul. Kathy’s Latest Costume: Whatever the Audience Wants.” He called the act political pandering and tone deaf less than two weeks before the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Hochul rejected the criticism.
“If he has problem with that, that says more about him than it does anybody else,” she said.
The governor’s office noted that she has worn a hijab on previous occasions, including during a 2022 visit to a mosque in Ronkonkoma that had been attacked and at the funeral last year of NYPD Officer Didarul Islam.
Afaf Nasher, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations New York, said covering one’s head when visiting a house of worship is a sign of respect and argued that linking the issue to Sept. 11 is inappropriate.
“He should not try to link any type of threat towards Muslims and 9-11 here, given the fact that we are in mourning just like every other New Yorker and American,” Nasher said.
Blakeman later said his statement was not an attack on the Muslim community and noted that he regularly visits mosques in his role as Nassau County executive.
However, he also told Newsday that wearing a hijab and identifying as a feminist are incompatible positions for Hochul.
The governor pushed back on that criticism.
“I just love it when men lecture women on whether or not they are a feminist,” Hochul said.
Nasher also disputed Blakeman’s argument.
“The essence of equal rights is making the choice to wear a hijab or not. So, him attacking her choice to wear a hijab and Muslim women’s choice to wear a hijab is actually what is disempowering and anti-feminist,” she said.
The dispute has drawn in other Republicans. President Donald Trump posted that the photo showed Hochul trying to get what he called the “Arab Vote.”
