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The Eiffel Tower in Paris was closed on Monday as employees went on strike to protest claims female colleagues were told to stay out of sight during a visit by a Hindu religious group, drawing criticism from French politicians.
Around 100 members of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a global Hindu organization headquartered in Ahmedabad, India, visited the landmark on Saturday.
BAPS describes itself as a “spiritual, volunteer-driven fellowship” dedicated to improving society through individual growth and promoting the Hindu values of faith, service and global harmony. The group inaugurated a new Hindu temple in Paris on Sunday.
Diane Davoine, a union representative for the Eiffel Tower staff, told reporters that during the visit, “women were asked to leave their places of work in order to place men there.”
“So that absolutely does not go down well with the employees, with women obviously, who are all humiliated by what happened, by the way some were treated,” she said.
Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said an investigation has been launched into the claims.
“It is not acceptable that such conditions can be tolerated,” he wrote on X. “These are neither my values, nor those that the Eiffel Tower should uphold, where everyone should be able to move about and act freely, without distinction between women and men.”
The Eiffel Tower Operating Company (SETE) acknowledged that the delegation had requested a visit that limited “interactions with women,” according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.
SETE said that “these conditions should not have been accepted,” BFMTV reported.
CNN has contacted SETE for a response.
In a statement on X, BAPS did not directly mention the female staff but said it took the concerns “very seriously” and that the visit was organized “in coordination with the Eiffel Tower team at the start of normal opening hours” to limit disruption to other visitors.
“To the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower,” the statement said. “Nevertheless, we sincerely apologise for any pain or inconvenience caused.”
CNN has contacted BAPS for comment.
The incident has sparked outrage in a country with a long history of feminist activism and a constitutional commitment to secularism that traces its ideological origins to the French Revolution.
Over the past century, feminist movements in France have also successfully pioneered campaigns for women’s suffrage, reproductive rights and greater gender equality. France became the first country in the world to guarantee the right to abortion in its constitution in 2024.
France’s Minister for Gender Equality and the Fight Against Discrimination, Aurore Bergé, called the alleged incident at the Eiffel Tower “unacceptable.”
“In France, gender equality is neither negotiable nor subject to varying standards. It is a principle, and there are no exceptions to it,” she wrote on X.
Thousands of Hindu devotees associated with BAPS joined various events and processions in France in recent days, according to its website.
Last week, a procession “led by women and girls of all ages” made its way down the streets of Bussy-Saint-Georges, an eastern suburb in the French capital, according to BAPS. More than 5,500 Hindu devotees from around the world also joined a boat procession on the River Seine, it said.
BAPS is known for its ornate temples across the world.
The BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham in Robbinsville, New Jersey, is the largest Hindu temple in the United States. It also built the largest Hindu temple in the United Arab Emirates, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated in 2024.
Hinduism is widely considered to be the world’s oldest living religion and the third largest – behind Christianity and Islam – with more than 1 billion followers.
Among other things, Hinduism reveres femininity through the worship of powerful goddesses, including Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom; Kali, the goddess who destroys evil and ego; and Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity.
Yet entrenched misogyny and debates over gender equality within the religion have persisted, particularly over women’s access to temples and certain rituals.
In a landmark 2018 ruling, India’s Supreme Court struck down a centuries-old ban on women of menstrual age entering the Sabarimala Temple in the southern state of Keralam, declaring the restriction discriminatory and unconstitutional.
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