Eiffel Tower Makes Female Workers ‘Invisible’ To Accommodate Religious Group

Paris officials are investigating after Eiffel Tower employees went on strike to protest instructions that female workers avoid contact with a visiting Hindu delegation, shutting down the landmark for the day.

The visiting group was Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), which describes itself as a “volunteer-driven fellowship” within the Swaminarayan sect, a branch of Hinduism. The request, according to multiple reports, was for staff on-site to limit interactions between members of the group and female employees.

Female staffers said they were effectively told to “make themselves invisible” by either remaining out of sight or leaving their posts entirely during the group’s Saturday visit. The delegation was in the Paris area for events marking the inauguration of a new Hindu temple on Sunday.

Diane Davoine, a union representative for Eiffel Tower employees, said management responded to the request by replacing female workers with men.

“Women were asked to leave their places of work in order to place men there,” Davoine said. “So that absolutely does not go down well with the employees, with women obviously, who are all humiliated by what happened, by the way some were treated.”

Employees went on strike Monday, closing the landmark for the day. It reopened Tuesday. Ariel Weil, the president of the Eiffel Tower Operating Company (SETE), sided with employees and called the incident “totally shocking and unacceptable.”

BAPS released a statement after the backlash, apologizing for any “pain or inconvenience.”

“We understand the concerns expressed and take them very seriously. Given the size of our delegation, the visit was organized in coordination with the Eiffel Tower teams, at the start of normal opening hours, in order to limit as much as possible any disruption for other visitors. To our knowledge, at no time was access to the Eiffel Tower denied to anyone,” the statement read.

“Nevertheless, we wish to offer our sincere apologies to anyone who may have been hurt or inconvenienced by this situation,” the group continued. “We are deeply committed to the universal values of mutual respect and service to others.”

In a later statement to the Associated Press, BAPS said its coordination with Eiffel Tower management was “never, at any point, intended as a request rooted in gender” and that any suggestion otherwise did not reflect the group’s values.

“It is not acceptable that such conditions can be tolerated,” Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said, adding that there would be a full investigation into the situation. “These are neither my values, nor those that the Eiffel Tower should uphold, where everyone should be able to move about and act freely, without distinction between women and men.”