A competitor reacts ahead of Tough Guy Mudathon event in Perton, Britain, 04 February 2018. The original event which started in 1987 raises money for charity and challenges thousands of international competitors with a cross-country run followed by an assault course consisting of 20 obstacles including water, fire and tunnels. (Photo by Nigel Roddis/EPA/EFE)

Protesters sit in a cafe during a “SlutWalk” protest, in which several hundred participants march through the centre of Jerusalem, May 13, 2016. The SlutWalk movement began after a Toronto policeman suggested in 2011 that women could avoid sexual assault by not dressing like a “sl*t”. (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters)

As the world marks the International Day of the Girl Child, women's rights activists point to progress on a wide array of issues but say more needs to be done to protect girls from child marriage, sexual assault and other forms of exploitation. Here is a selection of pictures showing the daily lives of girls across the globe, all taken by female Associated Press photojournalists. Here: In this December 14, 2015, file photo, a young clown rides in the back of a car following a procession to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Hundreds belonging to various clown associations made their annual pilgrimage to the Basilica to pay their respects to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

A Togolese policeman, disguised as a terrorist, brandishes his weapon on October 20, 2022 during an anti-terrorism exercise at the Peacekeeping Operations Training Center (CEOMP). Togo's military on Thursday carried out a simulated jihadist attack in the capital Lome on Thursday, practising countering an assault and hostage-taking at a restaurant. Togo and neighbouring West African coastal states like Ghana and Benin are preparing for growing spillover from jihadist conflicts across their northern borders in Niger and Burkina Faso. (Photo by Yanick Folly/AFP Photo)

A Bangladeshi girl watches from a nearby building after a five-story building was raided by police in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police in Bangladesh's capital raided a five-story building Tuesday that was used as a den by suspected Islamic militants, killing nine of them, the country's police chief said. Police said they belonged to a Bangladeshi group blamed for an attack on a Dhaka cafe earlier this month in which 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, were killed and had been planning another large-scale assault. (Photo by AP Photo)

A CIT guard carries his gun handgun while bringing a bag containing cash inside an armoured vehicle during a money collection in Johannesburg's CBD, on December 8, 2020. As the Christmas festive season approaches, cash-in-transit (CIT) companies are gearing up as they continue to be target of crime, with about 3000 money vans traveling daily nationwide. Despite the COVID-19 lockdown, there have been 260 cash-in-transit heist incidents in South Africa this year, with 19 CIT crew members killed. Cash-in-transit heists in the country are often military-style planned operations with criminals recurring to bomb making and assault rifles attacks. (Photo by Michele Spatari/AFP Photo)

A woman learns how to use an AK-47 assault rifle during a civilians self-defence course in the outskirts of Lviv, western Ukraine, on March 4, 2022. The Russian army occupied on March 4, 2022 the Ukrainian nuclear power plant of Zaporozhie (south), the largest in Europe, where bombings in the night have raised fears of a disaster as more than 1.2 million people have fled Ukraine into neighbouring countries since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, United Nations figures showed on March 4, 2022. (Photo by Daniel Leal/AFP Photo)

A woman holds Kalashnikov assault rifle during a training session with members of the Georgian Legion, a paramilitary unit formed mainly by ethnic Georgian volunteers to fight against Russian forces in Ukraine in 2014, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, February 19, 2022. Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine have ordered a full military mobilization amid growing fears in the West that Russia is planning to invade the neighboring country. The announcement on Saturday came amid a spike in violence along the line of contact between Ukrainian forces and the pro-Russia rebels in recent days. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)