In the 2022 Scottish local elections, El-Nakla stood 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]
Personal life
El-Nakla with her husband, Humza Yousaf, her elder daughter and her mother-in-law at the Court of Session, March 2023
El-Nakla was previously married to Fariad Umar, an IT expert, and they had one daughter together.[10] In November 2015, Umar discovered she had an affair with Craig Melville, an SNP councillor, who also later sent racist text messages to her. The Umars 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] On 17 July 2024, her husband announced the birth of their daughter, Liyana Jenin Yousaf.
Her younger brother is Ramsay El-Nakla, who was charged with extortion and abduction in a case linked to a man who died after falling out of a window in Dundee in January 2024.[19] In 2021, El-Nakla told the Daily Record that she had made a complaint of discrimination against a Dundee children's nursery that did not offer a place to her daughter.[20] The Care Inspectorate found that the nursery "did not promote fairness, equality and respect" in terms of its admission policy.[21] She later terminated the legal action.[22]
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.[23] On 3 November, they crossed the border to safety in Egypt.[24][25]
^Carrell, Severin (9 April 2024). "Humza Yousaf's brother-in-law charged after man's death in Dundee". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2024. Ramsay El-Nakla, 36, has been charged with abduction and extortion in a case linked to a man who died in hospital a week after falling from a window in a block of flats in Dundee on 10 January. El-Nakla, the younger brother of Nadia El-Nakla, the first minister's wife and Scottish National party councillor, is due to appear in Dundee sheriff court on Tuesday.
