On Monday, September 7, the Eiffel Tower was closed to visitors due to a staff strike. The cause was the demands of a large delegation from the Hindu religious movement Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), which had planned to visit the landmark, reports infohub.kz.
To avoid inconveniencing other tourists, the delegation had previously agreed on a visit time with the operating company and asked to minimize the presence of women at the site. The tower's operator, SETE, accommodated the guests: staff were instructed to stay out of the delegation's sight, and in some areas women were replaced by men.
This directive angered employees, who deemed it discriminatory and went on strike. The President of the French National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, reacted sharply to the incident: "Hospitality does not mean abandoning our values. In France, women fully participate in public life. No one has the right to demand that they become invisible."
In the end, both BAPS and SETE issued public apologies. The tower's operator admitted that it should not have accepted the tourists' conditions. The official website of the landmark announced that the tower resumed normal operations on Tuesday. Tourists who had purchased tickets for Monday were apologized to.