A traffic policeman hides a rose behind his back before giving it to a female driver ahead of International Women's Day in Ryazan, Russia on March 7, 2017. (Photo by Alexander Ryumin/TASS via Getty Images)

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)

Arisha, 9, takes instructions from coach Younus Qambrani during an exercise session at the first women's boxing coaching camp in Karachi, Pakistan February 19, 2016. For the past six months about a dozen girls, aged 8 to 17, have gone to the Pak Shine Boxing Club after school to practice their jabs, hooks and upper cuts. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

Ethiopian Airlines female pilots prepare the plane before takeoff at Bole international airport in the capital Addis Ababa, November 19, 2015. Ethiopia Airlines on Thursday, dispatched its first ever all-female operated flight. Every aspect of the journey was handled by women, from the ground crew, aircraft maintenance to traffic controllers. Gualu and her co-pilot were charged with flying the crew and passengers to Bangkok, Thailand. (Photo by Tiksa Negeri/Reuters)

The Rainbow Warrior III, the newest ship of the enivornmental conservation organization Greenpeace, makes its way to port on the Elbe River on October 20, 2011 in Hamburg, Germany. The Rainbow Warrior III, 53 meters long, designed by Greenpeace and built in Poland and Germany, is a EUR 23 million project completed last week. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Malaysia's Ann Osman puts in her mouth guard before her mixed martial arts (MMA) ONE Championship fight against Egypt's Walaa Abbas in Kuala Lumpur, March 13, 2015. Osman is the first female Muslim MMA fighter to compete at the top level of the sport. (Photo by Olivia Harris/Reuters)

An Acehnese female police officer wear a hijab on duty in the street in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, 27 March 2015. Indonesia National Police officially issued a regulation allowing female police officer to wear the Islamic hijab (heads craft) as a part of their uniform. Indonesia is the biggest Muslim population in the world. (Photo by Hotli Simanjuntak/EPA)

In this Wednesday, March, 5, 2014 photo, Afghan female boxers practice at the Kabul Stadium boxing club, Afghanistan. The women, who are 18 and older, don't have much more than determination, and a trainer who runs them through their paces, watches as they spar, corrects their technique, tells them when to jab, how to protect themselves, when to power through with a left and then a right. (Photo by Massoud Hossaini/AP Photo)