{"id":75896,"date":"2026-09-08T06:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T06:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/75896\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T06:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T06:13:16","slug":"eiffel-tower-baps-row-what-really-happened-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/75896\/","title":{"rendered":"Eiffel Tower-BAPS row: What really happened in Paris?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Eiffel Tower<\/a> was closed to visitors on Monday after staff walked out over claims that female employees were sidelined during a private visit by a BAPS<\/a> delegation. The monument was expected to reopen on Tuesday after talks between workers and management.<\/p>\n

Here is what is known so far.<\/p>\n

What happened during the visit?Around 100 members of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) visited the Eiffel Tower on Saturday, September 5. The delegation was in France for events linked to the inauguration of a BAPS Hindu temple near Paris<\/a>, according to Reuters and The Straits Times.<\/p>\n

The Eiffel Tower\u2019s operating company, SETE, said the delegation had asked for the visit to be organised in a way that limited \u201cinteractions with women\u201d. SETE acknowledged that the request had been accepted but said \u201cthese conditions should not have been accepted\u201d, according to reports by AFP.<\/p>\n

The key point is that the allegation concerns instructions given to Eiffel Tower employees during the visit. Staff representatives said some female workers were asked to leave their workstations, move to other areas or avoid specific parts of the tower. In some locations, they were replaced by male colleagues.<\/p>\n

Diane Davoine, a union representative, told Reuters: \u201cAs the delegation passed through, women were asked to leave their workstations so that men could take their places.\u201d<\/p>\n

The employees\u2019 statement described the instructions as an attempt to make female workers \u201cinvisible\u201d because of their sex.<\/p>\n

Did BAPS remove the women?There is no confirmed indication that BAPS physically removed Eiffel Tower employees. The available accounts say the delegation made a request and that the tower\u2019s management organised the arrangements.<\/p>\n

The Eiffel Tower staff statement blamed \u201cprofessional instructions\u201d that led to women being \u201csidelined, replaced and made invisible\u201d. SETE also accepted that the conditions should not have been approved.<\/p>\n

That means the central issue is not a confirmed physical confrontation between BAPS visitors and employees. It is whether the tower\u2019s management acted on a request that sought to limit contact between the delegation and female staff.<\/p>\n

What did BAPS say?BAPS apologised for \u201cany pain or inconvenience caused\u201d by the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower,\u201d the organisation said in a statement cited by Reuters and The Straits Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

BAPS said the visit had been coordinated with Eiffel Tower staff because of the size of the group. It did not, in the statement reported by the publications, directly address each allegation about female employees being moved from their posts.<\/p>\n

Why did the Eiffel Tower close?Staff members held a walkout on Monday, September 7, after tensions rose over the weekend. The tower\u2019s website initially cited operational or exceptional reasons for the closure.<\/p>\n

Davoine said employees wanted to open talks with management and ensure that female staff were not treated in the same way again, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

The closure was therefore linked to a workplace protest over gender equality. It was not reported as a security shutdown or a protest by visitors.<\/p>\n

What happens next?Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gr\u00e9goire said an investigation would be launched to establish what happened. He backed the employees\u2019 concerns and said equality between women and men must apply throughout the city.<\/p>\n

The investigation is expected to examine who made the request, who approved the arrangements and what instructions were given to employees.<\/p>\n

The Eiffel Tower operator said the landmark was due to reopen on Tuesday after a meeting between staff and management.<\/p>\n

The broader issueThe incident has become a debate about the limits of accommodating religious or cultural requests in a public workplace.<\/p>\n

BAPS says it arranged the visit to avoid disruption and that, to its knowledge, no one was denied access. Employees, however, say the arrangements forced female workers to withdraw from their duties because they were women.<\/p>\n

The facts that are established are that a BAPS delegation visited the tower, arrangements were made to limit interactions with women, female staff say they were moved or replaced, SETE admitted the conditions should not have been accepted, BAPS apologised, and staff protested.<\/p>\n

The investigation will determine the precise chain of responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Eiffel Tower was closed to visitors on Monday after staff walked out over claims that female employees…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[46192,862,46191,32798,73,30],"class_list":["post-75896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-baps","tag-eiffel-tower","tag-eiffel-tower-baps-controversy","tag-eiffel-tower-closure","tag-europe","tag-paris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}