Eiffel Tower Closed After Staff Strike Over Women Being Removed For Visit By Hindu Group

According to the BBC, the Eiffel Tower was closed on Monday after staff went on strike over female workers being removed for a visit by a Hindu religious group. Workers and management said a delegation of about 100 people linked to the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) visited the Paris landmark on Saturday, and union representative Diane Davoine said women were told to move when the group arrived. Société d'Exploitation de la tour Eiffel (SETE), which operates the monument, confirmed to AFP that the delegation had asked for the visit to be arranged to limit interactions with women. The company said those conditions should not have been accepted and were not in line with its values or with equality between men and women. SETE president Ariel Weil said the practice was not acceptable and reaffirmed the Eiffel Tower's commitment to republican values and gender equality. BAPS said on X that the trip had been arranged with the Eiffel Tower team at the start of normal opening hours to avoid disrupting others, and it apologized for any pain or inconvenience caused. Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said there would be an investigation into the circumstances of the visit, while French political figures including Marine Le Pen, Gabriel Attal and Yaël Braun-Pivet also criticized the incident.