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)

The owner of the zoo Pierre Thivillon laughs next to a chimpanzee on May 17, 2021, at the zoological park of Saint-Martin-la-Plaine, two days ahead of its reopening as part of France's latest step toward the ending of its third nationwide Covid-19 lockdown. (Photo by Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP Photo)

A horse is paraded during the Arabian Horse Festival at the Bait al-Arab in Kuwait City on February 5, 2022. (Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP Photo)

A couple wearing protective masks take a picture of a rose on Valentine's Day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on February 14, 2022. (Photo by Hasnoor Hussain/Reuters)

Participants compete in a wife-carrying championship in Tapiobicske, Hungary, August 7, 2021. Some 40 Hungarian husbands, with their wives on their backs, clambered over rough terrain on Saturday in the nation's second wife-carrying contest. (Photo by Marton Monus/Reuters)

Ariel Almiron and Alumine Deluchi compete in the final round of the Tango World Championship stage category, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, September 25, 2021. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)

A baby goat named Simba, has the World's longest ears which are 48 cm, is seen with her owner in Karachi, Pakistan on June 16, 2022. (Photo by Yousuf Khan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

English actress Diana Rigg as “Emma Peel” is tied to a railway track as a miniature train advances on her in a scene from the television series “The Avengers” in 1968. Rigg died at her home in London on 10 September 2020, at the age of 82. (Photo by Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)