See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy SABRINA PENTY, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER and AFP Published: 09:36 BST, 9 September 2026 | Updated: 09:36 BST, 9 September 2026
An investigation has been launched into the removal of female staff at the Eiffel Tower during a visit by a Hindu religious group. The decision to remove staff members has been widely condemned and even sparked an employee walkout and the monument's subsequent one-day closure.The Hindu group, which is close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling conservative Hindu nationalist party, apologised for any 'inconvenience' caused.The operating company that runs the Eiffel Tower, SETE, acknowledged that the Hindu delegation had requested the visit on Saturday be organised to limit 'interactions with women' and said that 'these conditions should not have been accepted'.Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire announced two investigations into the incident, calling the decision to sideline female staff 'absurd, unjust and unacceptable'.The city of Paris, which 'owns 99 per cent' of the landmark, will conduct one probe, he added, while SETE will carry out a separate internal review with an external consultant.Asked who had given the order, Gregoire said he was beginning to have 'some information' but declined to elaborate.'I will leave it to the investigation,' he said. Hindu monks take part in a religious ceremony in front of the Eiffel Tower before a ceremonial river parade on the river Seine in Paris on September 3, 2026 Members of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Hindu community wave an Indian flag during a religious ceremony in front of the Eiffel Tower on September 3The monument was closed on Monday, when SETE said it held a meeting between staff and management.The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) spiritual movement apologised for 'any pain or inconvenience caused' by the incident.'To the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower,' the organisation wrote on X.'Due to the size of our delegation, the visit was arranged in conjunction with the Eiffel Tower team at the start of normal operating hours to avoid disrupting or inconveniencing others.'Eiffel Tower staff condemned 'professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex' during the visit by the delegation.'Instructions were given to female employees of the Eiffel Tower and to female employees of contractors to make themselves invisible in order to welcome this delegation,' the staff said in a statement, adding they were shocked to have been put in such a situation.'Some were asked to leave their posts and withdraw to other areas. In some posts they were replaced by men. And all female employees were instructed not to go through or cross certain areas while the delegation was present.'BAPS had opened its first major temple in France on Sunday, near Paris.The organisation's spiritual leader Mahant Swami Maharaj, 93, consecrated it himself.The BAPS organisation claims a worldwide network of more than 1,300 temples, some of which have been inaugurated by Modi himself.France's gender equality minister Aurore Berge voiced indignation after the Eiffel Tower incident.'In France, we do not ask women to erase themselves,' she said.Candidates in next year's presidential election also weighed in.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 head of state, said: 'In France, no culture, no belief, no religion, nothing and no one can come and dictate to women what their place should be.'
