Hindu group’s Eiffel Tower visit sparks uproar after female staff sidelined

PARIS — French politicians condemned the decision to sideline women employees at the Eiffel Tower during a Hindu religious delegation’s visit to the Parisian landmark. Ariel Weil, mayor of Paris’ central district and head of the company responsible for managing the Eiffel Tower, said Tuesday on French public radio that an internal probe would investigate how “overly zealous operations managers” were able to implement such a “shocking and unacceptable” decision. The incident took place Saturday, when a delegation from Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a Hindu denomination with close ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party that faced scrutiny in the United States over forced labor allegations, booked a private visit to the tower. According to staff representatives, female employees were told to step aside so as not to be seen by the group during the visit. Staff went on strike Monday to protest the move, forcing the monument to close. Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire, a member of the center-left Socialist Party, said on X that “gender equality will never stop at the foot of our historic monuments, nor anywhere else in this city. It must apply everywhere, for everyone.” Marine Le Pen, the far-right front-runner in next year’s presidential election, stressed that “in France, we will never accept the presence of women being ‘limited.’” Aurore Bergé, the minister for gender equality and a member of French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party Renaissance, called the incident “unacceptable.” “In France, no religion is above the law,” she said. The BAPS delegation was in Paris as part of a two-week-long celebration inauguration of its first branch in France. Modi called the event “a matter of great joy.” On X, the French BAPS branch said that “to the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower” while “sincerely [apologizing] for any pain or inconvenience caused.” “We believe in the universal values of mutual respect and service,” it added.