Humza Yousaf has demanded a full investigation into a Scots nursery over alleged discrimination against his daughter.
The Health Secretary is seeking legal advice after his two-year-old daughter was among several children with ethnic names who were allegedly rejected on the basis there was "no space".
Mr Yousaf and his wife, Nadia El-Nakla, spoke to the Daily Record and set up fake profiles to uncover what they believe to be "a private nursery discriminating applicants on basis of their ethnicity/religion."
Sara Ahmad, a relative of Ms El-Nakla's, applied on May 12 for her two-year-old child, but according to Mr Yousaf, was told more than a week later that there was no availability "now or in the foreseeable future".
However, on the day Ms Ahmad was refused, Ms El-Nakla is reported to have been invited to fill in a form for a fake profile under the name Suzy Sheppard, and was offered a tour.
The couple then asked a journalist with the Daily Record to investigate the situation with Little Scholars Nursery in Broughty Ferry further.
In a lengthy Twitter thread, Mr Yousaf explained: "I was sure there must be a rational explanation but my wife felt differently.
My wife's instincts & great investigative journalism by @anniebrownword has uncovered what I believe to be a private nursery discriminating applicants on basis of their ethnicity/religion
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) August 2, 2021
With no explanation from Little Scholars, we will pursue the truth & get answers we deserve
"She created a profile with a White Scot name & made an application, she also asked her sister 'Sara Ahmed' to submit an application on the same day. Her sister was rejected but White Scot application accepted."
He continued: "I cannot tell you how angry I am. As a father all I want to do is protect my girls, yet aged two, I believe my daughter has faced discrimination.
"If this had not happened to me I'm not sure I would have believed it could happen in 2021."
A spokesman for the owner of the nursery, Usha Fowdar, did not comment on “each individual email application”.
He told the Record: “Our nursery is extremely proud of being open and inclusive to all and any claim to the contrary is demonstrably false and an accusation that we would refute in the strongest possible terms.
“In addition to our owners being of Asian heritage, across more than a decade we have regularly welcomed both children and staff from a range of different religious, cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds including two Muslim families currently.
“We have also regularly made arrangements to accommodate different lifestyles by, for example, providing a halal menu for those children who come from Muslim families.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel