Authorities in Paris have launched an investigation into the alleged sidelining of female staff at the Eiffel Tower during a visit by Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) on Sunday. The matter came to light on Monday after staff went on strike, forcing the Eiffel Tower, one of the most visited monuments in the world, to be shut for the day.
According to Reuters, signs at the base of the tower on Monday read: “The opening of the is delayed for operational reasons.”
Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said that an investigation would be launched “as soon as possible”. In a post on social media platform X, he said he was aware of the employees’ anger and agreed their dissatisfaction was legitimate.
, the leader of National Rally, also condemned the incident and called for an investigation.
“In France, we will never accept that the presence of women be “limited.” All light must be shed on what happened during this visit to the Eiffel Tower,” Le Pen said in a post in X.
According to AFP, in a statement, Eiffel Tower staff condemned what they described as “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 their 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.”
SETE, the operating company that runs the Eiffel Tower, acknowledged that the delegation had requested the visit be organised so as to limit “interactions with women” and said that “these conditions should not have been accepted”.
The conditions “were not in line with SETE’s values, nor with the principles of equality between men and women,” the company said according to AFP, promising to accept the “consequences”.
“It is clearly not an acceptable practice,” SETE president Ariel Weil, who is also a socialist elected official in Paris, told AFP.
“I restate the Eiffel Tower’s commitment to republican values and to the equality of men and women.”
According to Reuters, a BAPS delegation comprising around 100 members was on a private visit to the Eiffel Tower on Sunday.
, whose representatives were in France for festivities related to the inauguration of a Hindu temple in the Paris suburbs, said in a statement that the visit to the Eiffel Tower was arranged at the start of opening hours to avoid disrupting others, due to the size of its delegation.
“To the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower. Nevertheless, we sincerely apologise for any pain or inconvenience caused,” the statement said.
According to its website, BAPS was founded by Shastriji Maharaj in 1907, and it is rooted in the spiritual teachings of Bhagwan Swaminarayan. It claims to have a presence in over 50 countries and operates over 1,300 temples globally. This includes the in Abu Dhabi, which was inaugurated on February 14, 2024, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
