Eiffel Tower management under fire after decision to hide female staff
One-day strike called after Paris landmark agreed to keep women out of sight for visit by Hindu group
The Eiffel Tower has reopened after a one-day strike was called in response to the landmark’s management ordering female staff to keep out of sight at the request of a visiting religious group.
City Hall, which operates the Paris landmark, has apologised for breaching France’s republican principle of equality and ordered a full inquiry.
Workers at the tower walked out on Monday, closing the landmark to visitors, after female colleagues were sidelined and replaced during a visit organised by a Hindu religious group at the weekend.
In a statement, staff said they objected to “professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex” during the visit.
“Some were asked to leave their posts and wait in separate rooms. In some posts, women were replaced by men. All female employees were instructed not to pass through or enter certain areas while the [Hindu] delegation was present,” they said in a statement.
Employees said they were shocked to find themselves in a situation that was “deeply contrary to the values of equality and nondiscrimination”.
“The Eiffel Tower is the symbol of France. We believe it must also be exemplary in the values it promotes and the way it treats staff,” the statement said.
The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) spiritual movement, whose members made the request in advance of a visit on Saturday, apologised.
“To our knowledge, nobody was refused access to the Eiffel Tower at any moment. Nevertheless, We offer our sincere apologies to anyone who may have been hurt or offended by this situation,” it wrote in a statement.
BAPS is close to India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party, Bharatiya Janata, and was in France to consecrate its first major temple in the country on Sunday.
The public-owned Eiffel Tower operating company (SETE) acknowledged that BAPS had requested that “interactions with women” be limited, and said it should not have accepted these conditions. “They are not in keeping with SETE’s values or the principles of equality between women and men and the neutrality that must guide the organisation of visits to the monument,” it said.
Emmanuel Grégoire, the mayor of Paris, has promised an investigation to “get to the bottom of this as soon as possible”.
He said moving female staff out of sight was unacceptable.
“These are not my values nor those the Eiffel Tower must represent,” he wrote on X.
Ariel Weil, mayor of the Paris Centre district and president of SETE, said he was unaware of the “shocking and unacceptable” conditions afforded the visiting group.
“I confirm again the Eiffel Tower’s commitment to republican values and gender equality,” he said.
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