The Eiffel Tower reopened to visitors on Tuesday after employees staged a walkout over the treatment of female workers during a recent visit by a Hindu religious delegation.
The landmark was shut on Monday as staff and management held discussions following the incident involving the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) delegation.
The company operating the Paris monument, SETE, said the group had asked for arrangements that would reduce “interactions with women” during its Saturday visit. SETE admitted that “these conditions should not have been accepted”.
The Eiffel Tower, which attracts nearly seven million visitors annually, resumed operations on Tuesday morning, with tourists passing through security checks at the monument’s entrance.
Female employees had protested what they described as workplace instructions that excluded them because of their sex.
“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.”
The staff also condemned what they called “professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex” during the delegation’s visit.
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BAPS later apologised for the controversy.
“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.”
BAPS Opens Major Temple Near Paris
The incident came shortly after BAPS opened its first major temple in France near Paris on Sunday.
Mahant Swami Maharaj, the 93-year-old spiritual leader of BAPS, personally consecrated the temple.
BAPS, which is described as being close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling conservative Hindu nationalist party, says it operates more than 1,300 temples worldwide. Some of its temples have also been inaugurated by Modi.
The Eiffel Tower controversy sparked reactions from French political figures, including Gender Equality Minister Aurore Berge.
“In France, we do not ask women to erase themselves,” she said.
Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen also condemned 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.”