Internal inquiry opened after Eiffel Tower 'sexist' closure prompts strike

The operating company that runs the Paris landmark, SETE, acknowledged that the Hindu delegation had requested the visit on Saturday be organised so as to limit "interactions with women" but said afterwards that "these conditions should not have been accepted".

SETE president Ariel Weil, who is also an elected official in Paris, told public broadcaster Francinfo on Tuesday that the incident, which occured on Saturday, was "totally shocking and unacceptable".

Weil maintains he was unaware of the instructions issued by the group of Hindu visitors.

"Some overly zealous operational managers apparently took it upon themselves to strictly enforce these guidelines, failing to exercise the judgment needed to recognise that they were inappropriate," he explained.

The results of an internal investigation would be known "in the coming days," he told French news agency AFP.

"We are going to shed light on what happened, and we will draw the necessary conclusions," he said.

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The Eiffel Tower, which says it receives nearly seven million people a year, was closed on Monday, when SETE said it held a meeting between striking staff and management. 

It reopened on Tuesday morning.
The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) spiritual movement apologised for "any pain or inconvenience caused" by the incident.

"To the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower," the organisation wrote on social media platform 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."

Eiffel Tower staff condemned "professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex" during the visit by the delegation.

Female employees made invisible

"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."

BAPS, which is close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling conservative Hindu nationalist party, opened its first major temple in France on Sunday, near Paris.

BAPS spiritual leader Mahant Swami Maharaj, 93, consecrated it himself.

The BAPS organisation claims a worldwide network of more than 1,300 temples, some of which have been inaugurated by Modi himself.

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France's gender equality minister Aurore Bergé voiced indignation after the Eiffel Tower incident.

"In France, we do not ask women to erase themselves," she said.

Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said the exclusion of female workers was "unacceptable" and contrary to the "values that the Eiffel Tower stands for".

Candidates in next year's presidential election also weighed in.

Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen also criticised 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."

(with AFP)