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)

Miss Lovely Legs competition at the Pick 'n Pay hypermarket in Boksburg, South Africa, 1980. (Photo by David Goldblatt/Museum of Contemporary Art Australia)

A roadside vendor selling apples is seen through a plastic sheet that he uses to cover himself from rain, in Srinagar, Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir on November 14, 2018. (Photo by Danish Ismail/Reuters)

Boxers Deontay Wilder, left, and Tyson Fury exchange words as they face each other at a news conference in Los Angeles, Wednesday, November 28, 2018. The pair are slated to fight Saturday night for Wilder's WBC heavyweight title. (Photo by Andrew Couldridge/Action Images via Reuters)

Masked guests attend the “Grand Bal Christian Dior” during the Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2018 fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, January 22, 2018. (Photo by Kamil Zihnioglu/AP Photo)

The Tianzi Hotel with the shape of Chinese deities Fu, Lu and Shou is pictured on November 20, 2017 in Langfang, Hebei Province of China. The 41.6-meter-tall Tianzi Hotel has an exterior of Chinese Sanxing, whose names are Fu, Lu and Shou with the qualities of prosperity, status and longevity in traditional Chinese culture, in Langfang city. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

(L-R) Playmate Victoria Silvstedt, Donald Trump and Melania Knauss at the Playboy 50th Anniversary celebration December 4, 2003 in New York City. (Photo by Peter Kramer/Getty Images)

A green iguana, or American iguana sits on an Aldabra giant tortoise, the largest tortoise of the world, in their enclosure at the zoo park of Lille, northern France, on February 11, 2019. (Photo by Philippe Huguen/AFP Photo)