Nadia Essayan is the daughter of Palestinian refugees Kamil and Leila Jahchan. During the late sixties, she lived in Casablanca for five years before returning to Côte d’Ivoire. Following her father’s premature death in 1970, the family left Africa and came to Lebanon in 1971.

Nadia Jahchan graduated with a degree in Social Sciences from the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) and taught sociology. She also taught pedagogy at the Training Institute for Primary Education, affiliated to the Institut Français du Liban, from 1979 to 1982.

She married Alain Essayan in 1982 and the couple left for France, where she obtained her DEA in Education from the Sorbonne University in 1984. She acquired the Lebanese nationality in 1984 and the French nationality in 1988.

Professional career
Between 1985 and 2008, Nadia Essayan fulfilled different missions:
- Taught medical sociology at the Vierzon Nursing Institute and the Sociological Contribution in Palliative Care Training, as well as in the continuing education offered by JAMA’VIE (Jusqu’à La Mort Accompagner La Vie) with volunteers in various hospitals in Cher.
- Participated in the Steering Committee of the States General of Health in the Central Region.
- Gave the “Sponsoring young people in difficulty” training as part of the operation “Employment, a Chance for 100 Young People in the Central Region”.
- Implemented actions against violence and academic failure at the Collège Albert Camus in Vierzon.
- Completed a survey on user satisfaction for the benefit of the CAF Social Center in Vierzon, with a view to reorganizing the Center’s services.
- Animated Rivage, a parental home in Bourges.
She has also been a qualified member of the Board of Directors of the Caisse d’allocations familiales du Cher, as well as a member of the Commission for the Evaluation of Social Action, the Youth Assistance Fund, and the Local Integration Committee. Furthermore, she was the national delegate for the Catholic Action of Independent Environments (ACI), from 2008 till 2017.

Political career
Elected in 2001 in Vierzon as part of a Rainbow Group majority (from the moderate left to the moderate right) with mayor Jean Rousseau and his first deputy Max Albizzatti, she was appointed assistant mayor for education, notably in charge of the Educational Success program.

She decided to join the Democratic Movement (MoDem) since its inception and ran for the legislative elections in Cher for the first time in 2007 under the UDF-MoDem label. In 2008, she was elected as opposition municipal councilor in Vierzon and resigned three months later. One year later, she represented her party for the European elections with Jean-Marie Beaupuy topping the list.

Her local political commitment continued with the 2014 municipal elections during which she was on the top of the list to become a community advisor and leader of the Republican opposition (with a group of seven municipal councilors).

She was a candidate with the group Avenir pour le Cher in the 2015 provincial elections and the legislative elections of 2017 in the second district of Cher where she was elected with 52.57% of the votes, defeating Nicolas Sansu (French Communist Party). With this win, she decided to give up local politics and focus exclusively on her new national mandate.

Nadia Essayan occupies the 174th seat in the French National Assembly and is part of the Committee of Cultural Affairs and Education, as a member of the preparation group of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

She is also a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Working Group on Cooperation, the France-Armenia Friendship Group, and the Palestinian Territories Study Group, as well as the Vice-President of the France-Lebanon Friendship Group.