A visit to the Eiffel Tower by a Hindu group has sparked a political row in France after female employees at the monument said they were moved from their posts, and in some cases, replaced by men while the delegation was on site.
The group from the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) visited the Paris landmark on Saturday. Eiffel Tower employees walked out on Monday in protest, closing the monument for a day, before it reopened on Tuesday.
The visit and the allegations
France’s CGT trade union said female employees and contractors were told not to enter or cross certain areas in the tower during the group’s visit. Some were allegedly asked to leave their workstations and move elsewhere, while others were replaced by male colleagues.
Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE), the company that manages and operates the monument acknowledged that the visiting group had requested arrangements limiting “interactions with women.” In a kind of mea culpa, it said the conditions “should not have been accepted.”
BAPS, however, has disputed the suggestion that its arrangements with the Eiffel Tower were intended to exclude women. In a statement, the organization said the visit had been coordinated with the tower’s management because of the size of the delegation and was “never, at any point, intended as a request rooted in gender.”
It also said nobody had to its knowledge been denied access to the Eiffel Tower and that it remained committed to equality and mutual respect.
A new BAPS Swaminarayan temple was inaugurated at the Bussy-Saint-Georges suburb outside the French capital on Sunday. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the inauguration remotely. The organization is headquartered in Modi’s home state Gujarat.
A sect known for its beautiful temples
BAPS is an affluent global Hindu religious organization within the Swaminarayan tradition, founded in India in 1907.
The sect is especially known for its elaborate stone temples and cultural complexes across the world. Among its best-known sites are the Swaminarayan Akshardham temple in New Delhi, the Akshardham complex in Robbinsville, New Jersey, and temples in London and Abu Dhabi.
The organization does not publish its finances, but some of the temples have cost millions to build. The New Jersey temple cost an estimated $96 million to build, and the one in Abu Dhabi cost about $84.2 million, publicly available data show.
Its money comes from donations and regular contributions by members.
The organization has over a million followers globally, and says on its website that it is present in over 20 countries. The largest fellowship outside of India is in the United States. The sect is highly influential, especially in western India.
“I find it truly astonishing that these are the allegations against the community, for they have been known for actively promoting caste, gender and class equality through its humanitarian and social activities,” Yogi Trivedi, a New York-based scholar who has co-authored a book on Swaminarayan Hinduism, told the Indian Express.
The early 19th century saint who founded the Swaminarayan tradition introduced reforms in Hindu society, especially to uplift and empower women.
The world’s oldest religion, with more than a billion followers, reveres the feminine. Among the many gods in the Hindu pantheon are also prominent goddesses, and women are worshipped on special days in these traditions. However, gender discrimination and female infanticide have persisted in modern Hindu society.
Why is this a big deal in France?
Because the alleged medieval-style exclusion of women happened in Paris – the cradle of the French Revolution and the very symbol of the inspiring Republican ideals of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.
France is renowned for decades of campaigning for women’s political, social, and reproductive rights. In 2024, it became the first country to explicitly enshrine the right to abortion in its Constitution.
“In France, gender equality is neither negotiable nor subject to varying standards. It is a principle, and there are no exceptions to it,” French Minister for Gender Equality and the Fight Against Discrimination Aurore Berge posted on X.
French officials invoked those values in responding to the incident, arguing that religious or cultural considerations cannot justify differing treatment of women in a public workplace.
National Assembly president Yaël Braun-Pivet said welcoming visitors must not mean asking women to disappear from public life. Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said the incident would be investigated.
On Tuesday, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal described the Eiffel Tower episode as “a matter purely between the entities concerned.”