Burqas are the only option some girls' schools in northwestern Pakistan have against being shut down or worse, being bombed.

"I want to study, but not in a burqa," said Shah Rukh, a 12-year-old girl enrolled at a primary school at Saidu Sharif in Swat.

Shah Rukh is just one of many girls who have learnt to speak out against the burqa diktat in the picturesque Valley.

"My 11-year-old daughter cries every morning when she has to wear the burqa," Mohammad Roshan, who teaches history at Jahanzeb College in Saidu Sharif, one of the main towns of Swat, told Newsline magazine.

In a private school in Mingora, the headquarters of Swat district, students were enraged when their principal received a letter from militants saying they would shut down the school.

"It is our right to get education," one of the girls in the school said.

A parent said his daughter "is constantly told by her teachers to attend school in a head-to-toe veil ever since the principal of the school received a letter of threat".