A Russian police officer detains a teenager during rally protesting retirement age hikes in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, September 9, 2018. A government plan to increase the age for collecting state pensions brought protests across Russia's 11 time zones on Sunday even though the opposition leader who called them was in jail. Nearly 300 people were reported arrested. (Photo by Roman Pimenov/Interpress photo via AP Photo)

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)

Picture shows a mural painting in Ferrol, on September 2, 2018, during the annual street art festival “Meninas de Canido” set up in 2008 to breathe new life in a dying neighborhood. Angry at the announced death of his neighborhood, Canido, in Ferrol, Eduardo Hermida painted his version of Velazquez's “Meninas” on a wall. An act of protest that gave birth to a festival and gave new colors to this city of Galicia. (Photo by Miguel Riopa/AFP Photo)

In this November 2, 2018 photo, a voodoo believer who is supposed to be possessed with Gede spirit performs rituals near Baron Samedi's tomb during the annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede at Cite Soleil Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As a proof that they got into trance and their bodies got possessed by Gedes, they drink and wash their faces, their eyes and even their genitals with a mixture of raw rum and hot chili peppers that, according to believers, could burn the skin of any human alive. (Photo by Dieu Nalio Chery/AP Photo)

Principal of the Royal Ballet, Natalia Osipova, performs outside the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in Edinburgh, England on November 21, 2018, where she is starring in the new contemporary ballet “The Mother”. (PHoto by Jane Barlow/PA Wire via ZUMA Press)

Participants gather during a traditional hunting contest, involving tamed golden eagles and hawks, in Almaty, Kazakhstan on December 1, 2018. (Photo by Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters)

Traditional dancers from southern state Tamil Nadu prepare themselves as they wait to perform during a press preview of displays being featured for the upcoming Republic Day parade in New Delhi on January 22, 2019. The Republic Day is an annual showcase of India's military hardware and cultural diversity. India celebrates its 70th Republic Day on January 26. (Photo by Sajjad Hussain/AFP Photo)

A woman argues as Belarus police block a street during an opposition rally in Minsk, Belarus, Saturday, March 25, 2017. Over the past two months, protests have broken out across the country of 9.5 million, sometimes attracting thousands – initially they were focused on the labor law but have grown to encompass calls for the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko, whom critics call Europe's last dictator. (Photo by Sergei Grits/AP Photo)