The Eiffel Tower reopened on Tuesday after staff walked out over the removal of women employees during a visit by a Hindu religious delegation. The group, the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), later apologised for “any pain or inconvenience caused”.
The Paris landmark was closed on Monday after staff and management held a meeting over the incident. Visitors returned on Tuesday morning and passed through security checkpoints at the base of the tower.
The Eiffel Tower’s operating company, SETE, said the delegation had asked for the visit to be organised to limit “interactions with women”. The company said “these conditions should not have been accepted”.
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Staff said women employees and female workers employed by contractors had been instructed to make themselves invisible during the delegation’s visit.
“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,” staff said in a statement.
They said some women were asked to leave their posts and move to other areas. In some places, male employees replaced them. Female employees were also told not to pass through certain areas while the delegation was present.
BAPS said on X that, “To the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower.”
“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,” it said.
The visit took place days before BAPS opened its first major temple in France, near Paris. The temple was inaugurated on Sunday by BAPS spiritual leader Mahant Swami Maharaj, who is 93.
France’s gender equality minister Aurore Berge criticised the incident.
“In France, we do not ask women to erase themselves,” she said.
Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said France would “never accept that women's presence be 'limited'”.
Gabriel Attal, a centrist presidential hopeful, said: “In France, no culture, no belief, no religion, nothing and no one can come and dictate to women what their place should be.”
