Meet Dalal Smiley:
Dalal is the Chief Executive Officer of Wellsprings for Women, an organization providing education programs and support services to women, which is “committed to providing an environment that is caring, nurturing and safe for the children, young people and adults at risk.” They are also “committed to protecting children, young people and adults from abuse in all its forms including emotional, physical and sexual abuse.”
Dalal’s work recently earned her induction into the Victorian Honor Roll of Women for 2024, as Wellspring’s LinkedIn account proudly announced:
This honor comes with a section dedicated to her on the Victorian Government website:
Dalal Smiley arrived in Melbourne with her family in 1976, seeking refuge after fleeing the civil war in Lebanon. Through this experience, she developed a passion for supporting migrant communities, especially women.
Her career started in language services and evolved into working in policy development in multicultural affairs. Over 14 years, she drove significant progressive and award-winning programs in the City of Darebin.
Dalal led the transition of the Victorian Arabic Network into becoming the Victorian Arabic Social Services. She was Chair between 1998 and 2005.
Dalal served as the Multicultural Affairs Commissioner with the Victorian Multicultural Commission between 2001 and 2005. She contributed to the development of the first Multicultural Victoria Act 2004.
Dalal received an Emergency Services Foundation scholarship in 2019. She studied the reforms in the UK emergency services relating to diversity recruitment and cultural change.
Deakin University awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Laws in 2016. This was for her contribution to work on diversity and inclusion.
In 2017 Dalal began her appointment as the CEO of Wellsprings for Women in Dandenong. This organisation provides education programs and support services to women. Women who have been impacted by migration, family violence, unemployment, mental health and poverty.
She used her leadership and advocacy skills to expand the program offerings and reach into the community. She established the role of Wellsprings for Women as a provider of specialist family violence case management services to migrant and refugee women, who were not adequately serviced within the mainstream sector.
Dalal worked to ensure that Wellsprings for Women provided holistic wrap-around services to women. This enables them to pursue and achieve their goals unimpeded by barriers and challenges, such as family violence, poverty, homelessness, mental health or lack of access to childcare.
Her efforts go well beyond the parameters of her job, occupying most of her waking hours. Supporting migrant women to thrive is a lifelong passion. She has built an incredible team of women around her.
I don’t doubt that Dalal Smiley has done great work advancing the rights of women. The problem is, when it comes to Jewish women who were raped by Hamas on October 7, Dalal refuses to believe it happened:
So much for her so-called compassion and believing the woman:
Incidentally, the very report Dalal cites to back up her claim that “there was no evidence of rape on October 7” says otherwise:
A U.N. fact-finding team found “reasonable grounds” to believe that some of those who stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7 had committed sexual violence, including rape and gang rape. But the U.N. investigators also said that in the absence of forensic evidence and survivor testimony, it would be impossible to determine the scope of such violence.
I suspect Dalal’s rape denialism stems from the fact she sees Hamas as “legitimate resistance”:
Funny how she cites the UN, yet herself dismisses their report concluding there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence — including rape and gang-rape — occurred across multiple locations of Israel and the Gaza periphery during the attacks on 7 October 2023.
Meanwhile, she also sees Hizbullah as legitimate resistance:
something that was brought to the attention of Wellspring’s funding bodies last month, to which Dalal and Wellspring responded:
Unequivocally supporting Hamas and Hizbullah as legitimate resistance are hardly “condemning all acts of violence”, and her rape denialism is not conducive with a culture of “empathy and compassion” nor being respectful of her Jewish staff’s “pain and anguish.”
Dalal Smiley has no business being the CEO of an organization advancing women’s rights if she continues to deny the rights of Jewish women raped by Hamas, nor if she views Hamas as legitimate resistance. And she certainly shouldn’t remain honored by the Victorian government.
