At one of the world's most visited monuments, a quiet administrative decision to accommodate a religious delegation's request for gender separation became a public reckoning with the limits of tolerance itself. The CEO of the Eiffel Tower's operating company announced his resignation after female employees were displaced from their posts during a BAPS Hindu group visit in September 2026 — a decision that provoked strikes, political condemnation, and a deeper question France has long wrestled with: where does respect for religious difference end and institutional complicity in discrimination be
Eiffel Tower CEO to resign over female staff removal during religious visit
Female staff members were removed from their workplaces, instructed to avoid certain areas, and reported feeling humiliated by the accommodation of gender segregation practices.
Women were asked to leave their places of work and felt humiliated
Mark
So the CEO is resigning because female staff were removed during a visit. But did BAPS actually demand this, or did SETE just assume that's what they wanted?
Mimi
The source says BAPS requested that the visit be organized to limit interactions with women. SETE accepted those conditions. So there was a request, and SETE said yes to it.
Luke
Right, but we should be careful here. SETE says they accepted the conditions. BAPS says they requested something. Those aren't quite the same thing as BAPS saying "remove all women from the building." The gap between a request and how it was executed matters.
Mark
Fair point. So what exactly happened to the women who worked there?
Mimi
They were told to leave their workstations. Some were instructed not to go through or cross certain areas while the delegation was present. A union rep said they felt humiliated.
Luke
That's concrete. But we don't have a number—how many women? Ten? Fifty? The source doesn't say. And we have one union representative's characterization of how they felt, which is important, but it's not individual testimony from the women themselves.
Mark
Why did SETE think this was okay in the first place?
Mimi
The internal investigation found operational flaws and shortcomings in how the visit was organized. SETE itself said the conditions should not have been accepted. So it seems like a planning failure—someone made a call that turned out to be wrong.
Luke
That's the company's explanation after the fact. We don't actually know what the reasoning was in the moment. Was it deference to a religious practice? Miscommunication? Pressure from somewhere? The source doesn't tell us.
Mark
And the strike—that happened right away?
Mimi
Yes. Staff walked out in protest, and the tower had to close. That's when politicians got involved and started calling it unacceptable.
Luke
The source says the visit led to closure and strikes, but it doesn't say how long the closure lasted or how many staff participated. Those details matter for understanding the scale of the response.
Mark
What's BAPS actually about? Are they a fringe group?
Mimi
They're a global Hindu movement with temples in major cities—London, Los Angeles, Sydney. They base their practices on 18th-century teachings about gender separation, which they say benefits women. But critics say those beliefs don't belong in the modern world.
Luke
The source gives us their self-description and their theological justification. It also tells us they apologized. But we don't have much on what critics actually say beyond a general statement that segregation is discriminatory. That's fair criticism, but the source doesn't give us the specific arguments.
El Pulso
- Female Eiffel Tower staff were removed from their workstations and barred from certain areas to accommodate a visiting Hindu delegation's practice of gender segregation, leaving women feeling erased from their own workplace.
- The moment word spread, workers walked out in protest and the tower was forced to close — a monument to French national identity briefly shuttered over a question of who belongs in public space.
- Politicians moved swiftly and sharply: the president of the National Assembly declared the situation intolerable, while Paris's mayor called it absurd and unjust, ordering two separate investigations.
- SETE's own internal review confirmed what many already felt — that accepting the delegation's conditions was an unacceptable failure, one that should never have been allowed to reach the operational stage.
- CEO Patrick Branco Ruivo announced his resignation effective year's end, and the company pledged gender equality training and structural reform under new leadership, signaling that the institution understands the gravity of what it permitted.
At one of the world's most visited monuments, a quiet administrative decision to accommodate a religious delegation's request for gender separation became a public reckoning with the limits of tolerance itself. The CEO of the Eiffel Tower's operating company announced his resignation after female employees were displaced from their posts during a BAPS Hindu group visit in September 2026 — a decision that provoked strikes, political condemnation, and a deeper question France has long wrestled with: where does respect for religious difference end and institutional complicity in discrimination begin. The incident did not merely expose an operational failure; it illuminated the tension between pluralism and equality that modern democracies have yet to fully resolve.
Patrick Branco Ruivo, who had led the Eiffel Tower's operating company SETE since 2018, announced on September 29, 2026 that he would step down before the year's end. The resignation followed a deeply controversial incident earlier that month, when female staff were removed from their posts and instructed to avoid certain areas of the tower during a visit by roughly 100 members of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha — a global Hindu spiritual movement that practices strict gender separation in its religious spaces. SETE had accepted the delegation's request to minimize interactions with women, and the women who were displaced reported feeling humiliated.
The consequences were swift. Staff staged a walkout that forced the tower to close, and French political figures responded with open condemnation. The president of the National Assembly said she would not accept women being compelled to step aside for foreign visitors, while the Socialist mayor of Paris called the decision absurd and unjust, launching two investigations. SETE's own internal review acknowledged that accepting the group's conditions represented an operational failure that should never have occurred.
BAPSissued an apology for any pain caused and reaffirmed its commitment to mutual respect. The organization, rooted in 18th-century Hindu teachings, describes its gender separation practices as introduced for women's benefit and maintains a global presence across major cities. But critics argued that theological justification does not make gender segregation acceptable in a public workplace.
SETE's chair announced that the organization would introduce gender equality training and reform measures under new leadership. For the women asked to leave their jobs that day, however, the episode raised a question that institutional pledges alone cannot easily answer: how far can accommodation of religious practice extend before it becomes something closer to sanctioned erasure.
Patrick Branco Ruivo has run the Eiffel Tower since 2018. On September 29, 2026, he announced he would resign by year's end. The reason: his company had removed female staff from their posts during a visit by a Hindu religious delegation earlier that month, replacing them with men to accommodate the group's practice of gender segregation.
The delegation, roughly 100 people affiliated with the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), had requested that the visit be organized to minimize interactions with women. SETE, the company operating the tower, accepted these conditions. Women were told to leave their workstations. Some were instructed to avoid certain areas entirely while the group moved through the building. A union representative reported that female employees felt humiliated by the directive.
The fallout was immediate. Staff walked out in protest, forcing the tower to close. French politicians responded with sharp condemnation. Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly, said she would not tolerate women being compelled to step aside for foreign visitors. Emmanuel Gregoire, the Socialist mayor of Paris, called the decision absurd, unjust, and unacceptable, and ordered two separate investigations.
SETE's internal review concluded that operational failures in planning the visit had led to an unacceptable outcome. The company acknowledged that accepting the delegation's conditions should never have happened. Ariel Weil, the chair of SETE, said on Tuesday that the organization would implement training programs and measures to promote gender equality in the months ahead. The leadership transition, he added, would proceed under careful management.
BAPSis a spiritual movement rooted in 18th-century Hindu teachings. It maintains strict separation of men and women in its temples and religious activities, a practice the organization says was introduced for women's benefit. The group has a global presence, with temples in London, Los Angeles, Sydney, and other major cities. It describes itself as a volunteer-driven fellowship dedicated to improving society through Hindu values. The organization issued an apology for any pain or inconvenience caused, reaffirming its commitment to mutual respect and service.
Critics argue that gender segregation, regardless of its historical or theological justification, has no place in contemporary workplaces or public institutions. The incident raised a fundamental question about how far accommodation of religious practice should extend when it conflicts with principles of equal treatment and dignity in the workplace. For the women who were asked to leave their jobs that day, the accommodation felt less like respect for difference and more like erasure.
Citas Notables
I refuse to allow women to be compelled to step aside in order to meet the demands of foreign visitors.— Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of France's National Assembly
An absurd, unjust and unacceptable decision— Emmanuel Gregoire, Socialist mayor of Paris, on the removal of female staff
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