| Nadia El-Nakla | |
| Birth Name: | Nadia Maged El-Nakla |
| Office: | Councillor of Dundee City Council for West End Ward 3 |
| Term Start: | 5 May 2022 |
| Predecessor: | Richard McCready |
| Birth Place: | Dundee, Scotland |
| Alma Mater: | Abertay University |
| Party: | Scottish National Party |
| Children: | 2 |
| Parents: | Maged and Elizabeth El-Nakla |
Nadia Maged El-Nakla (Arabic: نادية النقلة; born) is a Scottish psychotherapist, political activist and politician. She has served as a councillor on Dundee City Council since 2022, representing the West End of Dundee.[1] She is a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP). She is married to Humza Yousaf, the former first minister of Scotland and former leader of the SNP.
El-Nakla was born in Dundee, Scotland, to a Palestinian father and a Scottish mother.[2] [3] [4] She gained an MSc in Counselling from Abertay University.[5]
She is a qualified psychotherapist counsellor and has experience working with addiction, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, eating disorders, bereavement and suicidal ideation. She is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.[5]
El-Nakla worked as a case worker for Shona Robison, the member of the Scottish Parliament for the Dundee City East constituency.[6]
In the 2022 Scottish local elections, El-Nakla ran as an SNP candidate in the Dundee City Council's west end ward 3.[7] She was successful in her election bid and currently sits as a councillor, serving as the equalities spokesperson.[8] [9]
El-Nakla was previously married to Fariad Umar, an IT expert, and they had one daughter together.[10] In November 2015, Umar discovered racist text messages sent to El-Nakla by Craig Melville, an SNP councillor with whom she had previously had an affair. The couple eventually filed for divorce.[11] [12] [13] [14]
In 2019, El-Nakla married Humza Yousaf, the future first minister of Scotland and leader of the SNP.[15] She later gave birth to her second daughter, first of Yousaf's, and the family lived in Broughty Ferry, a suburb a few miles east of the city of Dundee.[16] In March 2024, the couple announced that they were expecting another child.[17]
She has disclosed that she has had four miscarriages.[18]
In 2021, El-Nakla made a complaint of discrimination against a Dundee children's nursery that did not offer a place to her daughter.[19] The complaint was upheld by the Care Inspectorate who found that the nursery "did not promote fairness, equality and respect" in terms of its admission policy.[20] She later terminated the legal action.[21]
In October 2023, her parents, Maged and Elizabeth El-Nakla, became trapped in the Gaza Strip during the Israel–Hamas war; after travelling to the Middle East to visit a sick relative from her father's side, where his Palestinian family relatives still reside.[22] On 3 November, they crossed the border to safety in Egypt.[23] [24]