Just when you think you've heard and seen everything, along comes something that shocks you. This time, it's a 93-year old Hindu spiritual leader who got all women removed from the Eiffel Tower during his visit there with a hundred followers. The man belongs to the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) and wants to build a temple in Paris. There are such temples in many countries, in fact there's one in Karachi, constructed on prime land in the heart of the city on Bunder Road. A friend of mine has a shop in the temple's land, worth probably half a billion rupees today.
This is the kind of thing one would've expected from orthodox Jews and even Muslims. This also proves that the ancient prejudice against women exists in other religions as well. This Hindu group has been in the news before. They strongly resisted entry of Dalits in 1966 going so far as to claim they're not Hindus. In 2021, they were sued by 200 Indian workers in the US who were forced to work more than 12 hours a day (with only 5 off days a year) and paid only US $ 1.20 per hour ( in New Jersey, where the minimum hourly wage is US $ 12.00). The female workers at Eiffel Tower went on strike for a day, while French authorities protested strongly, but considering that India is set to buy 36 Rafaels costing more than a hundred million dollars each, I doubt if France will do anything.
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