Eiffel Tower Director General to Step Down Following Controversy Over Female Staff Removal During Hindu Delegation Visit

The director general of the company that operates the Eiffel Tower will leave his position at the end of the year, following widespread condemnation over the removal of female employees during a visit by a Hindu religious delegation earlier this month.

Patrick Branco Ruivo, who has led the state-owned management company SETE since 2018, will vacate his role after an internal investigation concluded that serious failures in organising the visit resulted in the unacceptable sidelining of women on staff.

SETE announced the decision in a statement on Tuesday, confirming that Ruivo would depart at the end of 2025. The company said the internal review had identified "operational flaws and shortcomings" that allowed female workers to be replaced by male colleagues during the delegation's tour of the Paris landmark.

The controversy erupted after around 100 people associated with the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, or BAPS, visited the Eiffel Tower as part of a trip to Paris to inaugurate a new temple. The group's beliefs, which trace back to the 18th Century, require strict separation of men and women, including in temple activities and at building entrances.

During the visit, female staff members were reportedly asked to step aside from their usual posts and were replaced by male colleagues. According to a staff union representative, women were told to leave their places of work and felt humiliated by the experience. Employees at the monument also said female workers were instructed not to pass through or cross certain areas while the delegation was present.

At the time, SETE acknowledged that the Hindu delegation had requested the visit be arranged in a way that would limit interactions with women, and stated that these conditions should never have been accepted. The company's admission underscored the depth of the organisational failure, which has now cost its most senior executive his job.

The incident provoked immediate and fierce reaction. Staff at the Eiffel Tower walked out on strike to express their outrage, forcing the monument to close its doors to visitors. The strike drew national attention and prompted politicians across the political spectrum to condemn the treatment of the female employees.

Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of France's National Assembly, voiced her disapproval shortly after the visit became public. She declared that she refused to allow women to be compelled to step aside in order to accommodate the demands of foreign visitors. Her statement captured the broader sense that the decision contravened fundamental French values of equality and secularism.

The Socialist mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Gregoire, also weighed in, describing the arrangement as an absurd, unjust and unacceptable decision. He ordered two separate investigations into how the situation had been allowed to occur, signalling that the city's leadership viewed the matter with the utmost seriousness.

SETE chair Ariel Weil said on Tuesday that he had requested the implementation of measures and training programmes designed to promote gender equality within the organisation. He added that the coming months would allow the company to prepare for the leadership transition under the best possible conditions, suggesting a desire to move forward while learning from the episode.

BAPS issued an apology earlier this month for any pain or inconvenience caused, stating that the organisation believes in the universal values of mutual respect and service. On its website, the group describes itself as a spiritual, volunteer-driven fellowship dedicated to improving society through Hindu values. It operates temples in major cities around the world, including London, Los Angeles and Sydney.

The movement draws its beliefs from the teachings of Lord Swaminarayan, a late 18th-Century celibate ascetic regarded by his followers as an incarnation of Vishnu, the Hindu god associated with preservation. BAPS maintains that the segregation of men and women was introduced for the benefit of women, but critics argue that such 18th-Century practices have no place in contemporary society and that excluding women in the name of religious tradition amounts to discrimination.

The affair has raised difficult questions about how public institutions in France, a country committed to laïcité and gender equality, should respond to requests from religious groups whose customs conflict with those principles. It has also highlighted the vulnerability of front-line staff, who found themselves caught between their employer's instructions and their own dignity.

For the Eiffel Tower, one of the most visited monuments in the world and a symbol of France itself, the reputational stakes are considerable. The strike closure disrupted tourism and drew international media coverage, reinforcing the impression that the incident was not a minor logistical misstep but a significant breach of the values the monument represents.

Ruivo's departure at the end of the year will mark the close of a chapter that began with his appointment in 2018. His tenure oversaw the daily operation of one of the world's most iconic landmarks, but it will now be remembered in part for a controversy that many in France regard as a stain on the institution's commitment to equality.

The coming months are expected to bring further scrutiny as the company implements the equality measures requested by its chair and prepares to name a successor. For the staff who walked out in protest, the resignation may offer a measure of vindication, though the deeper questions about respect, religion and women's place in public life are unlikely to fade quickly.