France’s Eiffel Tower reopened to visitors on Tuesday after employees staged a walkout over the exclusion of female staff during a visit by a Hindu religious organisation.
The iconic Paris landmark was shut on Monday after workers protested instructions that women employees should be removed from certain areas while members of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, a global Hindu organisation based in Ahmedabad, India, visited the tower on Saturday.
By shortly before 9:30 am on Tuesday, visitors had resumed passing through security checkpoints at the base of the monument, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. The Eiffel Tower also confirmed on its website that it was “open today”.
Workers had objected to what they described as the sidelining and replacement of female colleagues during the delegation’s visit. Some women were reportedly instructed not to enter certain parts of the monument while the group was present.
The Eiffel Tower’s operating company, Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE), acknowledged that the delegation had made the request but said the conditions were unacceptable and inconsistent with the monument’s commitment to gender equality.
France’s Minister for Gender Equality and the Fight Against Discrimination, Aurore Bergé, also criticised the reported incident, describing it as “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 affiliated with BAPS have participated in events and processions across France in recent days, according to information published on the organisation’s website.
The Hindu organisation later apologised over the incident.
