Eiffel Tower closed after staff strike over women removed during Hindu group's visit

The Eiffel Tower shut its doors after staff walked out over instructions that female employees make themselves invisible during a visit by a Hindu religious delegation.

Workers said some women were told to leave their posts and move to other areas. At some locations, men replaced them. All female employees were also instructed not to pass through certain areas while the delegation was present.

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Professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex.

The visit coincided with a cultural boat procession on the Seine organized by the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, or BAPS. The movement held the consecration of its first major temple in France near Paris on Sunday.

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These conditions should not have been accepted.

The Eiffel Tower's operating company, SETE, said the delegation had asked organizers to limit "interactions with women." The company said the conditions "should not have been accepted" because they did not match its values or the principles of equality between men and women. SETE president Ariel Weil called the practice unacceptable and reaffirmed the landmark's commitment to republican values and gender equality.

Paris officials reacted sharply. Socialist mayor Emmanuel Gregoire called the decision unacceptable and said an investigation would begin. Equality Minister Aurore Berge wrote that women in France should not be asked to erase themselves and that no religion stood above the laws of the Republic. Marine Le Pen and Gabriel Attal also criticized the arrangement.

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In France, we do not ask women to erase themselves. No dogma, no religion is above the laws of the Republic.

The landmark, which receives nearly seven million visitors a year, remained closed throughout Monday. A staff representative said it would reopen as normal on Tuesday.

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In France, no culture, no belief, no religion, nothing and no one can come and dictate to women what their place should be.