Eiffel Tower Closed After Staff Protest Over Removal of Female Colleagues

The Eiffel Tower was closed following strike action by staff protesting the removal of female colleagues during a visit by a Hindu religious group. Eiffel Tower staff condemned instructions requiring female workers not to be seen in order to welcome the delegation from the Hindu religious group.

According to AFP on Tuesday (8/9/2026), the visit took place on the same day as a cultural boat procession on the River Seine organised by the spiritual movement Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS).

Eiffel Tower staff denounced instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible on the basis of their gender during the delegation’s visit.

“Instructions were given to female Eiffel Tower employees and female employees of contractors not to be seen in order to welcome this delegation,” the staff said in a statement.

“Some were asked to leave their posts and move to other areas. At several posts, they were replaced by men. In addition, all female employees were instructed not to pass through or cross certain areas while the delegation was on site,” the statement continued.

Meanwhile, SETE, the company that manages the Paris landmark, acknowledged that the Hindu delegation had requested that the visit be arranged in such a way as to limit interaction with women, and stated that “these conditions should never have been accepted”.

“(These conditions) are not in line with SETE’s values or the principle of equality between men and women,” the company said, while pledging to accept “the consequences”.

“That is clearly not an acceptable practice,” said SETE president Ariel Weil, who is also an elected official of the Socialist Party in Paris.

“I reaffirm the Eiffel Tower’s commitment to the values of the Republic and to equality between men and women,” he added.

Emmanuel Gregoire, the deputy mayor of Paris from the Socialist Party, said via X that the tower management’s approval of the delegation’s demands was “unacceptable”, adding that an investigation would be launched promptly.