The Role Social Media in Forming Religious Identity of Veiled Female Students in Higher Education (Study on Veiled Students Phenomena at College in Gorontalo) A Zaenuri 1 , Lahaji 2 , H Yusuf 3 Faculty of Tarbiyah and TeachingSciences, IAIN Sultan Amai, Gorontalo 1,3 Faculty of Islamic Law, IAIN Sultan Amai, Gorontalo 2 {zaenuriahmad@iaingorontalo.ac.id 1 , lahaji_haedar@yahoo.com 2 , habibiey87@iaingorontalo.ac.id 3 } Abstract. Since the last five years, the growth of veiled students in higher education in Gorontalo has experienced a significant increase. Data from the research conducted by Gorontalo Muhammadiyah University on the growth of veiled students on the Islamic campus show an increase every year. In 2014 the number of female students worn Burqa was as much as 5% of the total students than in 2015 increased to 15% and in 2016 to 2017 the number of them reached close to 30-40%. This study investigates the role of social media informing the religious identity of the veiled female students in higher education in Gorontalo. By using a survey approach, this study is expected to find answers to the extent to which social media can form one’s religious identity. The theory used in this study is self constructs identity by Erickson. The results of the study show that social media has a role in forming the religious identity of veiled students in relation to following the edicts of scholars and admired figures. Keywords: Social Media, Religious Identity, Burqa 1 Introduction Starting from the last five years, the religious motivation of students in Gorontalo indicated a significant increase [1]. The increase was seen with the increasing number of religious studies with the theme of "Hijrah" and other religious "obedience" symbols such as the emergence of the Hijabers-student community with a hijab model that almost covers the whole body - a community of Muslim youth who wear trousers that are not enough to the ankles or commonly called “cingkrang” pants and the increasing number of veil users (Burqa) on college environment. Especially for the veil phenomenon, the phenomenon becomes a problem caused by two things that seem to face each other. On the one hand, wearing the veil is the freedom of expression of someone to get the dressing, on the other hand, the veil may restrict the space for student social interaction to other students or even to the lecturer. To date, there are no strict rules in the form of legal-formal issued by the college in Gorontalo in dealing with this phenomenon. The growth of veil users in college has experienced a significant increase. This can be seen in the following table data; AICIS 2019, October 01-04, Jakarta, Indonesia Copyright © 2020 EAI DOI 10.4108/eai.1-10-2019.2291684