Eiffel Tower shuts down after staff strike over exclusion of women ahead of Hindu group visit

In France, the birthplace of the revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity, Eiffel Tower staff walked out in anger after female employees were excluded from duties ahead of a visit by a Hindu organization.

Eiffel Tower employees went on strike Monday (local time) to protest the exclusion of women from work duties over the Hindu group's visit. The strike forced the landmark to close, according to AFP.

In a statement issued that day, the employees described the situation, saying, "Female staff members of the Eiffel Tower and its subcontractors were instructed to remain out of sight to welcome the (Hindu) group's visit." The staff said they were shocked by the instruction to keep women out of sight and denounced it as an unjust work order.

Some female employees were reportedly ordered to move to other locations, and some posts previously staffed by women were replaced by male employees. All female staff were also told not to pass through certain zones of the tower while the group was on site, the employees said.

The strike stemmed from a visit by the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a Hindu sect, which came to France for the completion ceremony of a Hindu temple in the Paris suburbs and to take part in a cultural boat procession on the Seine. The group visited the Eiffel Tower as a delegation Saturday.

SETE, the Eiffel Tower's operator, acknowledged the exclusion of female staff during the BAPS visit and expressed regret. SETE said the Hindu delegation had requested that the visit be arranged in a way that limited contact with women, adding, "These conditions should never have been accepted." The operator went on to say, "This does not align with SETE's values and its principles of gender equality," and added that it would "accept the consequences."