France

Eiffel Tower Closes After Female Staff Removed For Hindu Group Visit

Was the Eiffel Tower visit plain discrimination against female staff, or just the coordination of a 100-person group?

Published SEP 8

#France

Eiffel Tower Closes After Female Staff Removed For Hindu Group Visit

Story

Above: BAPS monks take part in a religious ceremony in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Sept. 3. Image credit: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images

The Facts

The Eiffel Tower was closed all day Monday after staff walked out over the removal of female employees during a private visit by a Hindu delegation.
Dw.Com
NDTV
In a statement issued through the CGT union, staff condemned "workplace instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and rendered invisible on the basis of their gender," saying some were told to leave their posts and were replaced by men.
France 24
NDTV
CNN
The dispute stems from a Saturday visit by a delegation of about 100 people from the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), whose representatives were in France for the consecration of a temple in the Paris suburbs on Sunday.
BAPS Mandir Swaminarayan Hindou de Paris on Instagram
Daily Mail
BBC News
SETE, the company that operates the tower, said the delegation asked to limit "interactions with women" and that "these conditions should not have been accepted." SETE president Ariel Weil said the practice was not acceptable.
EuroNews
Daily Mail
The BAPS temple in Paris said it took the concerns "very seriously" and apologized "to anyone who may have been hurt or inconvenienced," adding that the visit was arranged with Eiffel Tower teams at the start of opening hours and that no one was denied access.
EuroNews
NDTV
BAPS Mandir Swaminarayan Hindou de Paris on X
Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said he would open an investigation, while Equality Minister Aurore Bergé, Marine Le Pen and former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal also criticized the arrangement. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had congratulated BAPS on the temple.
Emmanuel Grégoire on X
The Wire
BBC News

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

A group that preaches women's empowerment at home cannot demand that women vanish from a workplace abroad. Asking female staff at the Eiffel Tower to make themselves invisible so a guru need not see them is plain discrimination in the name of religious practice, and no monument should ever be asked to do so. The strike that shut the tower was the only fitting answer.

Arnaud Bertrand on X

Rajdeep Sardesai on X

Narrative B

Blame belongs with the Eiffel Tower's operator. SETE admitted it accepted conditions limiting interactions with women that clashed with its values and the principle of equality, and Paris authorities are right to investigate how such a request was ever approved. The accountability has to land on the managers who said yes.

Nabila Jamal on X

Suhasini Haidar on X

Jordan Bardella on X

Narrative C

BAPS is taking the concerns seriously, but with a group of 100, some coordination with staff was needed just to keep the visit from disrupting others. No one was denied entry, and they've since apologized for any hurt caused.

BAPS Mandir Swaminarayan Hindou de Paris on X