Afghan girls ride a donkey along a street in Argo district at Badakhshan province on July 30, 2024. (Photo by Omer Abrar/AFP Photo)

The festival marks the end of the monsoon season and beginning of autumn. More than hundred girls under the age of nine gathered for the tradition of worshiping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy. The ritual holds a strong religious significance in Newar community. It is a community affair held primarily to save small girls from diseases and bad luck in the years to come. Photo: A young Nepalese girl dressed as a Kumari or living Goddess, smiles for camera as she waits for Kumari puja at Hanuman Dhoka, Basantapur Durbar Square in Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, September 17, 2013. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

A girl takes pictures after opening ceremony at Shanghai Disney Resort in Shanghai, China, June 16, 2016. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

“The girl behind the camera and the girl in front of the camera”, May 2012. (Photo by: Mandy Rosen; Source: Flickr)

An Afghan girl carries washed clothes on her head in Bamiyan, Afghanistan on March 2, 2023. (Photo by Ali Khara/Reuters)

A girl plays with pigeons in front of Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on February 24, 2023. (Photo by Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP Photo)

Girls ride on a donkey cart with grass for animals on the outside of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan May 19, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Parwiz)

Girls sits on a bench during summer at the Central Park in New York, United States, 2011. (Photo by An Rong Xu)