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)

A photojournalist is silhouetted by the sunset as a lightning strike at a resort affected by Saturday's tsunami in Carita, Indonesia, Tuesday, December 25, 2018. Christmas celebrations traditionally filled with laughter and uplifting music were replaced by somber prayers for tsunami victims in an area hit without warning following a volcanic eruption, leaving hundreds of people dead and thousands homeless in disaster-prone Indonesia. (Photo by Fauzy Chaniago/AP Photo)

A Palestinian man sits on a damaged car following Israeli airstrikes on Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Thursday, May 20, 2021. Heavy airstrikes pummeled a street in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, destroying ramshackle homes with corrugated metal roofs nearby. The military said it struck two underground launchers in the camp used to fire rockets at Tel Aviv. (Photo by Khalil Hamra/AP Photo)

A man carrying a woman wades through a flooded road following heavy rainfall in Zhengzhou, Henan province, July 21, 2021. At least 25 people have died in China's flood-stricken central province of Henan, a dozen of them in a subway line in its capital that was drenched by what weather officials called the heaviest rains for 1,000 years. (Photo by China Daily via Reuters)

A woman reacts as she lays flowers outside the Perm State University following a campus shooting in Perm, about 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, September 21, 2021. A student opened fire at the university, leaving a number of people dead and injured, before being shot in a crossfire with police and detained. Beyond saying that he was a student, authorities offered no further information on his identity or a possible motive. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Dancers warm up in the wings before performing in a full-dress rehearsal at the Moulin Rouge in Paris on September 8, 2021, two days ahead of the reopening of the cabaret following an 18-month closure amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Closed for a year and a half due to the pandemic, the Moulin Rouge and Le Lido, emblems of the crazy Parisian nights since 1889, are finally reopening. (Photo by Christophe Archambault/AFP Photo)

In this November 3, 2015 file photo, Afghan Taliban fighters listen to Mullah Mohammed Rasool, the newly-elected leader of a breakaway faction of the Taliban, in Farah province, Afghanistan. Despite US President Donald Trump’s pronouncement that there would be no talks with the Taliban following a series of deadly attacks in Kabul, officials say talks continue, but neither side trusts the other and neither believes the other negotiates independently. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)

A contestant walks the runway during 2017 Miss Great Britain competition at the Mayfair A-list venue DSTRKT on May 11, 2017 in London, England. The pageant hopefuls were battling it out to represent Miss Central London. Miss Great Britain is a female beauty pageant. It is the oldest pageant in the UK, established in 1945. Following World War Two, a number of seaside resorts around the country introduced beauty contests as attractions. (Photo by Jules Annan/Barcroft Images)