Nadia Maged El-Nakla (born 1984) 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. She is a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP). She is married to Humza Yousaf, first minister of Scotland and leader of the SNP.
Early life
El-Nakla was born in Dundee to a Palestinian father and Dundonian mother. She gained a MSc in Counselling from Abertay University.
Career
El-Nakla 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.
She worked as a case worker for Shona Robison, the member of the Scottish Parliament for the Dundee City East constituency.
In the 2022 Scottish local elections, El-Nakla ran as an SNP candidate in the Dundee City Council's west end ward 3. She was successful in her election bid and currently sits as a councillor, serving as the equalities spokesperson.
Personal life
El-Nakla was previously married to Fariad Umar, an IT expert, and they had one daughter together. In November 2015, Umar discovered racist text messages sent to El-Nakla by Craig Melville, an SNP councillor, with whom she was having a sexual affair, after using software to recover messages sent to her phone. The couple eventually filed for divorce.
In 2019, El-Nakla married Humza Yousaf, the current first minister of Scotland and leader of the SNP. 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.
She has disclosed that she has had five miscarriages.
In 2021, El-Nakla made a complaint of discrimination against a Dundee children's nursery that did not offer a place to her daughter. 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. She later terminated the legal action.
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 area to visit a sick relative.