Paris opens probe into women staff being 'sidelined' during Hindu group's Eiffel Tower visit

Female employees at the Eiffel Tower were asked to step out of sight during a visit by a ​Hindu religious delegation at the weekend, according to union representatives, prompting a staff protest ‌and an investigation by Paris city authorities. A delegation of about 100 ​people linked to the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, or BAPS, made ​a private visit to the Eiffel Tower on Saturday. The spiritual movement later apologised for “any pain or inconvenience caused” by the incident. The September 5 incident angered staff and drew criticism from French politicians, with the Hindu religious group later apologising. The Paris monument reopened on Tuesday after being closed late on Monday following a meeting between staff and management. The operating company that runs the Eiffel Tower, SETE, acknowledged that the Hindu delegation had requested the visit be organised so as to limit “interactions with women” and said that “these conditions should not have been accepted”. “To the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower,” BAPS wrote in its statement 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.” Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire ​said that an investigation would be launched “as soon as possible”. In a post on social media platform X, ‌he said ⁠he was aware of the employees’ anger and agreed their dissatisfaction was legitimate. “It is urgent that all light be shed on the facts that led to this protest,” Gregoire wrote. Eiffel Tower staff said in a statement that it condemned “professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex” during the visit by the delegation. “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 their 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 statement said. Incident sparks criticism France’s gender equality minister Aurore Berge voiced indignation after the Eiffel Tower incident. “In France, we do not ask women to erase themselves,” she said. Yael Braun-Pivet, the president of ⁠the ​National Assembly, wrote in a post on X: “Welcoming others never ​means giving up our values. In France, women are fully present in public life. No one tells them to become ​invisible.” Candidates in next year’s presidential election also weighed in. Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen 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.” BAPS, which is close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 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.