Group leader Jane Waithageni Kimaru, 60 years old, shows women how to fight off a potential rapist and escape, during a Taekwondo self-defense class for women in the Korogocho slum of Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, September 16, 2021. (Photo by Brian Inganga/AP Photo)

Some people prepare to catch offerings thrown by Tengger tribe people into the crater of Bromo volcano to in Probolinggo, East Java province, on June 30, 2018, as part of Yadnya Kasada festival which falls on the 14th day of the Kasada month based on the traditional Hindu lunar calendar. (Photo by Juni Kriswanto/AFP 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)

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)

Vegetables, wood and charcoal are loaded onto the roof of a battered Peugeot on November 7, 2018 in Matadi, Democratic Republic of the Congo. From the port of Matadi to the capital Kinshasa, a 350 km road crosses the south-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Photo by Junior D. Kannah/AFP Photo)

Boys contort their faces as they participate in a game where they need to slide a coin from their forehead to their mouth to win, during the annual Feast Day of St. Rita of Cascia in Manila, Philippines on May 19, 2019. (Photo by Noel Celis/AFP Photo)

Members of the U.S. Army's Golden Knights parachute team perform during the Bethpage Air Show as part of a Memorial Day event at Jones Beach on Long Island, New York, U.S., May 25, 2019. (Photo by Johnny Milano/Reuters)

Rice seedling festival is a traditional folk festival in longji, guangxi, China on June 9, 2019, during grain in ear season. (Photo by Costfoto/Barcroft Media)