- Paris mayor orders two investigations after female staff were sidelined during a visiting Hindu delegation at the Eiffel Tower.
- The monument closed for one day after a staff walkout, then reopened following management meetings.
- Operator SETE said the delegation requested limited interactions with women and admitted those conditions should not have been accepted; BAPS apologised.
- Officials condemned the sidelining of female employees; Paris and SETE will each conduct separate investigations, including an external consultant.
The mayor of Paris on Tuesday ordered investigations over the removal of women staff at the Eiffel Tower during a visit by a Hindu religious group which prompted an employee walkout and the one-day closure of the monument.
The Eiffel Tower, which says it receives nearly seven million people a year, reopened on Tuesday morning after a furore resulted in the landmark being shut down on Monday.
The Hindu group, which is close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling conservative Hindu nationalist party, apologised for any “inconvenience” caused.
The operating company that runs the Eiffel Tower, SETE, acknowledged that the Hindu delegation had requested the visit on Saturday be organised so as to limit “interactions with women” and said that “these conditions should not have been accepted”.
“I will leave it to the investigation,” he said.
– ‘Made invisible’ –
The monument was closed on Monday, when SETE said it held a meeting between staff and management.
The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) spiritual movement apologised for “any pain or inconvenience caused” by the incident.
“To the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower,” the organisation wrote on X.
“Due to the size of our delegation, the visit was arranged in conjunction with the Eiffel Tower team at the start of normal operating hours to avoid disrupting or inconveniencing others.”
Eiffel Tower staff condemned “professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex” during the visit by the delegation.
“Instructions were given to female employees of the Eiffel Tower and to female employees of contractors to make themselves invisible in order to welcome this delegation,” the staff said in a statement, adding they were shocked to have been put in such a situation.
“Some were asked to leave their posts and withdraw to other areas. In some posts they were replaced by men. And all female employees were instructed not to go through or cross certain areas while the delegation was present.”
– New temple outside Paris –
BAPS had opened its first major temple in France on Sunday, near Paris.
The organisation’s spiritual leader Mahant Swami Maharaj, 93, consecrated it himself.
The BAPS organisation claims a worldwide network of more than 1,300 temples, some of which have been inaugurated by Modi himself.
France’s gender equality minister Aurore Berge voiced indignation after the Eiffel Tower incident.
“In France, we do not ask women to erase themselves,” she said.
Candidates in next year’s presidential election also weighed in.
Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen also criticised the incident, saying France would “never accept that women’s presence be ‘limited'”.
Gabriel Attal, a centrist rival to become head of state, said: “In France, no culture, no belief, no religion, nothing and no one can come and dictate to women what their place should be.”
Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire announced two investigations into the incident, calling the decision to sideline female staff “absurd, unjust and unacceptable”.
The city of Paris, which “owns 99 percent” of the landmark, will conduct one probe, he added, while SETE will carry out a separate internal review with an external consultant.
Asked who had given the order, Gregoire said he was beginning to have “some information” but declined to elaborate.
