Eiffel Tower staff walk out after women told to ‘make themselves invisible’ during BAPS Hindu visit

On September 8, the Eiffel Tower was shut down due to a walkout by staff members protesting the exclusion of female employees during a visit by a Hindu religious group, according to workers and management. The Hindu group, BAPS, organized a boat procession on the Seine on the same day. The Eiffel Tower staff denounced the "professional instructions leading to female employees being sidelined, replaced, and made invisible due to their gender," a statement from the staff disclosed.

These instructions compelled female employees to remain hidden during the delegation's visit, some being asked to vacate their positions and move elsewhere, with other staff members substituted with men. Female employees were also instructed not to navigate through specific areas while the delegation was present. SETE, the operating company for the Eiffel Tower, acknowledged that the Hindu delegation had requested a visit to minimize interactions with women, yet declared that these conditions clashed with the company's values of equality between men and women.

SETE president Ariel Weil, a socialist elected official in Paris, stated, "It is clearly not an acceptable practice. I reiterate the Eiffel Tower's commitment to republican values and to the equality of men and women." Paris's socialist mayor, Emmanuel Gregoire, expressed on X that the management's agreement with the delegation's conditions was "unacceptable" and vowed to launch an investigation.

BAPS, closely linked with India's ruling conservative Hindu nationalist party, inaugurated its first major temple in France on Sunday, near Paris. French Equality Minister Aurore Berge denounced the incident on X, asserting, "In France, we do not ask women to erase themselves. No dogma, no religion is above the laws of the Republic."

Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen criticized the situation, affirming that France would "never accept that women's presence be 'limited'." Centrist presidential rival Gabriel Attal emphasized that "in France, no culture, no belief, no religion, nothing and no one can come and dictate to women what their place should be."