Eiffel Tower closed due to strike after female staff allegedly removed for religious group

Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters

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.

萨拉·梅索尼尔/路透社

周一，巴黎埃菲尔铁塔关闭，员工举行罢工，抗议有报道称，在印度教宗教团体参观期间，女同事被告知要躲起来，此举招致法国政界人士的批评。

周六，总部位于印度艾哈迈达巴德的全球印度教组织博查桑瓦西·阿克沙尔·普鲁肖塔姆·斯瓦米纳拉扬·桑斯塔（BAPS）的约 100 名成员参观了这一地标。

BAPS自称是一个“以精神信仰和志愿者驱动的团体”，致力于通过个人成长来改善社会，并弘扬印度教的信仰、服务和全球和谐价值观。该组织于周日在巴黎落成一座新的印度教寺庙。

埃菲尔铁塔工作人员的工会代表黛安·达沃因告诉记者，在参观期间，“女性被要求离开她们的工作场所，以便让男性在那里工作。”

“所以，员工们，尤其是女性员工，对此非常不满，她们都因为发生的事情，以及一些人受到的待遇而感到羞辱，”她说。

巴黎市长埃马纽埃尔·格雷戈尔表示，已对这些指控展开调查。

“这种状况是不能容忍的，”他在X上写道。“这既不是我的价值观，也不是埃菲尔铁塔应该秉持的价值观，在那里，每个人都应该能够自由地走动和行动，而不应区分男女。”

据 CNN 附属电视台 BFMTV 报道，埃菲尔铁塔运营公司 (SETE) 承认，该代表团曾要求进行一次限制“与女性互动”的访问。

据BFMTV报道，SETE表示“这些条件不应该被接受”。

CNN已联系SETE寻求回应。

在 X 上发表的一份声明中，BAPS 没有直接提及女性工作人员，但表示他们“非常重视”这些担忧，并且此次参观是“在正常开放时间开始时与埃菲尔铁塔团队协调安排的”，以尽量减少对其他游客的干扰。

声明称：“据我们所知，没有任何人被阻止进入埃菲尔铁塔。尽管如此，我们对由此造成的任何痛苦或不便深表歉意。”

CNN已联系BAPS征求意见。

这一事件在该国引发了众怒，该国有着悠久的女权主义活动历史，并在宪法中承诺奉行世俗主义，其意识形态起源可以追溯到法国大革命。

过去一个世纪以来，法国的女权运动也成功地率先开展了争取妇女选举权、生育权和更大程度性别平等的运动。2024年，法国成为世界上第一个在宪法中保障堕胎权的国家。

法国性别平等和反歧视部长奥罗尔·贝尔热称埃菲尔铁塔发生的这起事件“令人无法接受”。

“在法国，性别平等既非谈判事项，也不受不同标准的约束。这是一项原则，没有任何例外，”她在X上写道。

据其网站称，近日有数千名与BAPS有关的印度教信徒参加了在法国举行的各种活动和游行。

据BAPS报道，上周，一支“由各个年龄段的妇女和女孩带领”的游行队伍走过了法国首都巴黎东郊比西圣乔治的街道。该组织还表示，来自世界各地的5500多名印度教信徒也参加了塞纳河上的乘船游行。

BAPS以其遍布世界各地的华丽寺庙而闻名。

位于新泽西州罗宾斯维尔的BAPS斯瓦米纳拉扬阿克沙达姆神庙是美国最大的印度教寺庙。它还在阿拉伯联合酋长国建造了最大的印度教寺庙，该寺庙于2024年由印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪揭幕。

印度教被广泛认为是世界上现存最古老的宗教，也是继基督教和伊斯兰教之后的世界第三大宗教，拥有超过10亿信徒。

印度教崇敬女性气质，通过崇拜强大的女神来表达敬意，其中包括智慧女神萨拉斯瓦蒂、摧毁邪恶和自我的女神卡莉以及财富和繁荣女神拉克什米。

然而，宗教内部根深蒂固的厌女症和关于性别平等的争论一直持续存在，尤其是在女性进入寺庙和参与某些仪式方面。

2018 年，印度最高法院做出了一项具有里程碑意义的裁决，推翻了喀拉拉邦南部萨巴里马拉神庙禁止月经期妇女进入该神庙的数百年禁令，宣布该限制具有歧视性且违宪。