Nahdi Saqqaf

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Her Excellency
Dr. Nahdi Saqqaf
نهضي سقاف
Nahdi Saqqaf.jpg
Prime Minister Nahdi Saqqaf, at a children's fundraiser in 2020.
رئيسة وزراء المَدْحَاء‎
Prime Minister of Al Madhaa
Assumed office
September 2019
MonarchZuhr bint Ghazi Al Shams (2018 - present)
Preceded by?
رئيسة مجالس الشورى‎
Speaker of the Majlis al-Shura
Assumed office
September 2019
MonarchZuhr bint Ghazi Al Shams (2018 - present)
Preceded by?
Personal details
Born
Nahdi Hrishti Saqqaf

(1987-12-16) 16 December 1987 (age 36)
Jordan University Hospital, AmmanJordan
Height161 cm (5 ft 3 in)
SpouseRihaan Khan (m. 2011 - present)
ChildrenNone
Parents
  • Harun Jawad-Lal Saqqaf (father)
  • Dyuti Chithra Rai Sen (mother)
Alma materUniversity of Jordan, (BA)
Zayed University, (MIA)
Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, (Ph.D.)
Other name(s)Nahdi Saqqaf Khan
LanguagesBangla, Arabic (along with Gulf, Jordanian and Hadhrami dialects), Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu), English, Kashmiri
ReligionIslam
Nahdi Saqqaf's signature



حكومة المَدْحَاء | رئيسة وزراء ‎
GOVERNMENT OF AL MADHAA | THE PRIME MINISTER °


Dr. Nahdi Saqqaf ([nahðˤˈiː saqˈaːf]; Arabic: نهضي سقاف,  romanized: Nāhḍī Sāqāf; Bangla: নাহদি সাক্কাফ, born Nahdi Hrishti Saqqaf on 16 December 1987), also known as Nahdi Saqqaf Khan (née Saqqaf), is a Indo-Madhaa'in politician of Hadhrami, Kashmiri, Bengali and Tamil descent serving as the Prime Minister of Al Madhaa and Speaker of the Majlis, the Emirate's accompanying administrative council. She is the first female prime minister in both the Emirate and the Arab world, having been appointed to her position just before Her Excellency Najla Bouden, Tunisia's prime minister.

Early Life

Saqqaf was born Nahdi Hrishti Saqqaf on Wednesday, 16 December 1987, at the Jordan University Hospital in AmmanJordan, as the oldest child of Harun Jawad-Lal Saqqaf, a mixed-race British-Madhaa'in national working as a historian and interim undergraduate professor of Law at the University of Jordan, and Dyuti Chithra Rai Sen, a professionally trained Bengali-Tamil Bharatanatyam dancer originally from Delhi.

Private Life

Saqqaf has two younger siblings—Nilam, born in 1994, and Nur, born in 1999.

Saqqaf does not hold citizenship in either Jordan, the place of her birth, or India, her mother's homeland—prior to 10 December 1992, only children born to Indian fathers (not mothers) were eligible for citizenship by descent, while Jordanian nationality laws have historically operated under the jus sanguinis principle, the interpretation of which are extremely similar to the former Indian policy. She is also ineligible for naturalization, having only lived in the latter country until she was six, and after that returning, as aforementioned, to attend university there. Both of her younger siblings, however, hold OCI status.

Saqqaf has spoken at length about her regret in regards to not being able to speak Tamil