“I bought my first dlsr camera in 2009 may. The first part of my life is gone but the other i dedicate to photography. If i try to imagine myself, i saw someone on the road, who walking straight to the light. This kind of light is the photography and the post-processing in my life. My pictures express the feelings, moods what i felt under my trip in the last few years”. – Ildiko Neer

Photo: “Path to the shine”, 2011. (Photo by Ildiko Neer)

Students celebrate their A-level results at King Edward VI High School for Girls in Birmingham, England on August 18, 2016. The proportion of top grades achieved by A-level students across the UK has fallen for a fifth year in a row, and girls have caught up with boys in attaining A* grades. (Photo by Joe Giddens/PA Wire)

Nepalese Hindu devotees offer oil lamps in the Bagmati River as they observe the festival of Bala Chaturdashi in the early morning hours at the Pashupati Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, 28 November 2016. Seven kinds of seeds – paddy, barley, sesame, wheat, gram, maize and finger millet – are sown around the temple premises in the name of loved ones departed during the last three years, in the belief that the departed souls will receive salvation. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha)

Nepalese women performs ritual as they take a holy bath in the Bagmati River, during the Rishi Panchami festival, in Kathmandu, Nepal September 18, 2015. Rishi Panchami is observed on the last day of Teej when women worship Sapta Rishi (Seven Saints) to ask for forgiveness for sins committed during their menstrual periods throughout the year. The Hindu religion considers menstruation as a representation of impurity and women are prohibited from taking part in religious practices during their monthly menstruations. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

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)