Story by Gethin Hicks
The Eiffel Tower closed on Monday after female staff were ‘forced to hide’ when a Hindu group visited over the weekend.
The dispute stemmed from a private visit on Saturday by around 100 members of a group whose representatives were in France for festivities related to the inauguration of a Hindu temple in the Paris suburbs
Female staff said they were asked by management to ‘make themselves invisible’ ahead of the group’s arrival, while some workers were replaced by men.
It is thought that the Hindu delegation had requested that ‘interactions with women’ be limited, though the Eiffel Tower’s operating company said ‘these conditions should not have been accepted’.
Staff were said to have been left shocked by the request – and organised a meeting on Monday morning to ‘ensure that women are never treated this way at the company again’.
The tower was subsequently shut for ‘operational reasons’ and management have since apologised to workers, according to Diane Davoine, a staff union representative.
She added: ‘As the delegation passed through, women were asked to leave their workstations so that men could take their places.
‘Tensions mounted over the weekend, so this morning, the employees decided to meet, first, to open a dialogue with management, and second, to ensure that women are never treated this way at the company again.’
A sign outside the tower read: ‘The opening of the Eiffel Tower is delayed for operational reasons. We apologize’
SETE, the operating company running the landmark, said the conditions ‘were not in line with SETE’s values, nor the principles of equality between men and women’.
The company added that it will accept any concequences.
‘It is clearly not an acceptable practice,’ SETE president Ariel Weil, who is also a socialist elected official in Paris, said.
‘I restate the Eiffel Tower’s commitment to republican values and to the equality of men and women.’
Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said that an investigation would be launched ‘as soon as possible’.
In a post on social media platform X, he admitted that he was aware of the employees’ anger and agreed their dissatisfaction was legitimate.
‘It is urgent that all light be shed on the facts that led to this protest,’ Gregoire wrote.
French equality minister Aurore Berge reacted angrily on X.
‘In France, we do not ask women to erase themselves. No dogma, no religion is above the laws of the Republic,’ she wrote.
Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen also criticised the incident, saying France would ‘never accept that women’s presence be “limited”‘.
Gabriel Attal, a centrist rival to become president, said that ‘in France, no culture, no belief, no religion, nothing and no one can come and dictate to women what their place should be’.
