Eiffel Tower women staff ‘sidelined’: BAPS apologises, MEA steers clear

The Eiffel Tower was forced to shut its doors on Monday after a union revealed that female staff were told to limit their movements and were replaced by men during a private visit by a delegation linked to the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS). Union representative Diane Davoine said women were asked to leave their workstations so that men could take over, a move she described as humiliating and unacceptable, and management subsequently issued an apology to the workers.

The delegation’s visit took place on Saturday, and the tower, which welcomes roughly seven million visitors annually, remained closed the following day as employees gathered to demand that such gender‑based treatment not recur. Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire, Equality Minister Aurore Bergé and SETE president Ariel Weil all condemned the exclusion of women, while the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, through spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, framed the matter as a bilateral issue and declined further comment on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s virtual wishes for the inauguration of a BAPS temple in Paris.

BAPS, a Hindu organization that recently opened a temple in the Paris region, said the visit was scheduled at the start of opening hours to avoid disruption and expressed regret for any inconvenience caused. The episode highlights tensions between religious practices and France’s strict secular and gender‑equality laws, raising questions about how foreign religious groups interact with public institutions and the safeguards in place for workplace rights.