The contribution of cultural resilience to cultural sustainability in tourism encounters: Reimagining the Burqa on Qeshm Island, Iran

Tourism as a disruptive force raises concerns about cultural sustainability, particularly in socially conservative destinations. Yet sustaining traditional cultural orders in such contexts may perpetuate the marginalization of women. Drawing on evolutionary economic geography, this study frames cultural resilience as an internal mechanism through which societies reconfigure norms toward greater equity. Using ethnographic-oriented methods and two rounds of interviews (2022, 2024), it traces the transformation of the burqa, a traditional face mask worn by women on Qeshm Island, Iran. Findings show that while women had already begun abandoning the burqa before tourism's arrival, its emergence created opportunities to redefine the item. Once a compulsory symbol of modesty, the burqa was reimagined as a canvas for art, entrepreneurship, and cultural expression. This case contributes to debates on cultural resilience and sustainability by showing how women embraced tourism's disruptive forces to sustain culture through adaptive renewal rather than resistance.