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 girl collects water lily flowers at a pond in Kampong Speu province Cambodia, March 24, 2017. Picture taken March 24, 2017. (Photo by Samrang Pring/Reuters)

Employee Jenny Forgie works on an orchid display at Kew Gardens in London, Thursday, February 8, 2018. The 23rd annual Orchid Festival is the first one with a Thailand theme, 66 volunteers worked on the 6,950 exhibited orchids. The festival is open from Feb. 10, 2018 until March 11, 2018. (Photo by Frank Augstein/AP Photo)

A Ukrainian soldier inspects a destroyed Russian APC after recent battle in Kharkiv, Ukraine, March 24, 2022. The writing made by Ukrainian soldiers reads: “Not to War”. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)

Devotees of the small farming village of Bibiclat celebrate the Feast of Saint John the Baptist while covered in banana leaves and mud on June 24, 2025 in Aliaga, Philippines. Known as the “Taong Putik” (mud people), the ritual happens yearly in this small farming village as their own version of expressing their faith and celebrating the feast of Saint John the Baptist whom the survivors of the Japanese occupation in 1944 in their area prayed to for rain to save their fellow villagers. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

A contestant lies in a chili covered pool eating Chillies during a chili eating contest on July 8, 2018 in Ningxiang, Hunan Province of China. Citizen Tang Shuaihui ate 50 Chillies in one minute winning the contest. (Photo by VCG/Getty Images)

A supporter of Iraqi populist leader Moqtada al-Sadr gashes his head with blade during a ceremony marking Ashura, the holiest day on the Shi'ite Muslim calendar, at Tahrir Square in Baghdad,,Iraq on August 9, 2022. (Photo by Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters)