The Eiffel Tower was shut down on Monday after staff went on strike over female workers being removed from their posts during a visit by a Hindu religious group.
A delegation of around 100 people linked to the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) organisation visited the landmark on Saturday. Staff union representative Diane Davoine told Reuters that as the delegation arrived, women were asked to leave their workstations so that men could take their place. She said management later apologised to staff over the incident, but the situation left female employees feeling humiliated and angry.
Davoine noted that tension built up over the weekend, so on Monday morning employees decided to meet — first to open a dialogue with management, and second to ensure women are never treated this way at the company again.
Société d’Exploitation de la tour Eiffel (SETE), which operates the monument, confirmed to AFP that the delegation had requested the visit be arranged to limit “interactions with women” — meaning the request stemmed from the group’s own religious or cultural norms, which call for limited contact between men and women during official events. This is why the visit’s organisers asked for female staff to be removed from the area serving the delegation. The company stated that “these conditions should not have been accepted” and that they were “not in line with SETE’s values, nor with the principles of equality between men and women.” SETE president Ariel Weil called it “clearly not an acceptable practice” and reaffirmed the tower’s commitment to republican values and gender equality.
Leave a comment