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)

Fireworks explode in the hands of a protester launching it at the Lebanese Central Bank building as frustrated depositors rally against Central Bank's Gov. Riad Salameh, who is facing corruption charges, and the deepening financial crisis in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 24, 2023. (Photo by Hassan Ammar/AP Photo)

A ballerina puts makeup on before practising for the revival of the classical ballet “Chopiniana”, the first since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, in the underground area of the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre amid ongoing attacks, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 27, 2025. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

Iraqi Kurdish women train weight lifting at a centre in Iraq's Kurdish regional capital of Arbil on February 2, 2022. Women's sports have developed at a sluggish pace across much of conservative Iraq, which has struggled through decades of conflict. But the Kurdistan region was spared the brunt of the violence and destruction, and its infrastructure, facilities and government funding have paved the way for a boom in professional women's sports. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

A flock of sheep huddles together while snow spindrift is whipped up by strong winds in Swaledale, North Yorkshire, UK on March 17, 2017. (Photo by Paul Kingston/NNP North News & Pictures Ltd)

A doll holding a replica of a AK47 gun is set on a tailpiece of a rocket on a roadside in a village near the town of Avdiivka, Donetsk region, on June 28, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya Savilov/AFP Photo)

A man rides a horse while others swim on the beach of Gaza City, Friday, August 3, 2018. (Photo by Khalil Hamra/AP Photo)

Tactics reminiscent of the early American frontier days are now being used in Vietnam. Lieutenant Commander Donald D. Sheppard, UBN, of Coronado, California, aims a flaming arrow at a bamboo hut concealing a fortified Viet Cong bunker on the banks of the Bassac River, Vietnam on December 8, 1967. (Photo by AP Photo)