Becky Hunter Kelm considers the controversy surrounding female staff at the Eiffel Tower being sidelined during a visit by a Hindu religious delegation, and asks what Christians can learn from the incident. As the row raises difficult questions about religious freedom, hospitality and equality, she explores the point at which respecting another faith’s practices can become complicity.
On Saturday 5 September, female staff at the Eiffel Tower were asked to leave their workstations and, according to staff representatives, were replaced by men during a private visit by a Hindu religious delegation. They were also instructed not to go through or cross certain areas while the delegation was present. Staff said they felt humiliated by what had happened.
The incident prompted Eiffel Tower staff to protest, with the landmark temporarily closing on Monday 7 September. The company that operates the tower, SETE, acknowledged that it had agreed to a request from the delegation to limit interactions with women and said that these conditions should not have been accepted. An investigation was subsequently announced.
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So who were the Hindu delegation, and what lies behind the religious practices that became the centre of the controversy?
The delegation of around 100 people was affiliated with the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a Hindu organisation with temples and communities around the world. BAPS traces its spiritual roots to Bhagwan Swaminarayan, who was born in 1781, while the BAPS organisation itself was established in 1907.
BAPS practises separation between men and women in some religious settings. Its own guidance states that men and women sit separately during communal prayers such as the arti, and its sadhus follow strict vows of celibacy. BAPS explains these practices as spiritual disciplines rather than as a belief that women are inferior.
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BAPS describes itself as a spiritual and volunteer-driven organisation dedicated to improving society through Hindu values. It also says that separate seating for men and women is a longstanding custom found in Hindu and other faith traditions. BAPS has said that ‘separate does not mean inferior’. But the question has to be asked: why should people working in a public space who do not share a particular religious practice be asked to adhere to it?
Many will argue that religious customs which require women to be separated from men have no place in a modern public workplace.
Many will argue that religious customs which require women to be separated from men have no place in a modern public workplace. Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of France’s National Assembly, condemned the incident, saying: ‘Welcoming others never means giving up our values. In France, women are fully present in public life. No one tells them to become invisible.’
As Christians, we must show respect and honour the religious practices of others, especially when we are guests in another culture.
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When we host guests from any country or faith in our hometowns, we also must do so with hospitality and humility.
When we host guests from any country or faith in our hometowns, we also must do so with hospitality and humility. But when customs breach God’s heart for people, respect can become complicity. The removal or sidelining of women because they are women is not okay and grieves the heart of Jesus, who treated women with dignity and welcomed them as his followers. Throughout the New Testament, we see Jesus engaging with women publicly, teaching them and receiving them as disciples in a way that challenged many of the social conventions of his time.
While BAPS apologised for ‘any pain or inconvenience caused’, it also said that, to its knowledge, nobody had been prevented from accessing the Eiffel Tower and that the visit had been arranged to avoid disrupting others. I deeply empathise with the women who came to work that Saturday and found themselves sidelined simply because they were female.
SETE has acknowledged that the conditions should not have been accepted, and a full investigation is warranted. I hope it will be a valuable learning point not only for France but for the Church too. Despite the inappropriate request to remove women from the space they occupied, let’s pray for forgiveness and reconciliation. And let’s pray for our Hindu friends around the world, that as they wholeheartedly seek God, they would find him.
‘There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.’ — Galatians 3:28
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