Overview
- Staff say a private delegation linked to the Hindu group BAPS asked that female employees step aside or avoid certain areas during a visit on Saturday, leaving some women removed from their posts.
- Workers held a meeting and staged a protest on Monday that delayed and briefly closed the monument to demand guarantees that the practice will not recur.
- SETE, the company that runs the Eiffel Tower, acknowledged the delegation had requested limits on "interactions with women," apologised and said it will investigate and accept the consequences.
- Senior politicians from across the spectrum condemned the sidelining of women and Paris city leaders have opened an inquiry that could lead to disciplinary or policy changes.
- The episode follows BAPS's nearby temple consecration and raises diplomatic sensitivity while prompting debate over how France balances accommodating visitors with upholding republican gender-equality norms.