An Iran fan attends the Russia 2018 World Cup Group B football match between Morocco and Iran at the Saint Petersburg Stadium in Saint Petersburg on June 15, 2018. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/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)

A goat wearing a sweater walks in a field in New Delhi, India, Thursday, January 17, 2019. (Photo by Altaf Qadri/AP Photo)

A girl collects water lily flowers at a pond in Kampong Speu province Cambodia, March 24, 2017. Picture taken March 24, 2017. (Photo by Samrang Pring/Reuters)

Boys contort their faces as they participate in a game where they need to slide a coin from their forehead to their mouth to win, during the annual Feast Day of St. Rita of Cascia in Manila, Philippines on May 19, 2019. (Photo by Noel Celis/AFP Photo)

Russian policemen detain participants of an unauthorized “Russian March 2020: For freedom and justice! We go out to say that Russian lives matter” organised by Russian nationalists on the National Unity Day in Moscow, Russia, 04 November 2020. Russian nationalists demand freedom for political prisoners in prisons and a fair investigation into the deaths of political prisoners, including representatives of radical movements who were killed during detention or found dead in places of detention. (Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA/EFE)

Robert Burck, better known as the “Naked Cowboy”, falls in the snow during a nor'easter storm in Manhattan, New York City on December 17, 2020. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Waitresses wearing protective masks, face-shields and gloves to prevent infections following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, gesture to customers toasting glasses at the cheerleader-themed restaurant “Cheers One” in Tokyo, Japan on May 11, 2020. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)