Jaida Zuniga #5 returns a volley against Northview during a girls volleyball match on grass as part of the newly formed Grass Valley League at Northview High School in West Covina on Thursday, March 4, 2021. South Hills defeated Northview (21-25), 25-13, 25-9, 25-12. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Women walk past a pile of rubbish bags on a street during a strike by garbage collectors demanding delayed salaries in Sanaa, Yemen May 8, 2017. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/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)

Russian Emergency Situations employees help a girl to bath in the icy water on Epiphany at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Ostankino near TV Tower in Moscow, Russia, Friday, January 18, 2019. Across Russia, the devout and the daring are observing the Orthodox Christian feast day of Epiphany by immersing themselves in frigid water through holes cut through the ice of lakes and rivers. Epiphany celebrates the revelation of Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God through his baptism in the River Jordan. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

A motor taxi driver gets his hands washed at an Ebola screening station on the road between Butembo and Goma on July 16, 2019 in Goma. The first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the eastern DR Congo city of Goma has died, the governor of North Kivu province said on July 16, 2019. The case – the first in a major urban hub in the region's nearly year-old epidemic of the disease – has sparked deep concern in neighbouring Rwanda and at the UN. (Photo by John Wessels/AFP Photo)

Mothers-to-be show their belly paintings in Hefei, east China's Anhui province on May 8, 2020. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock/China Stringer Network)

A person dressed as the mascot of Tokyo Tower wears a face shield while waiting to greet patrons at the entrance of the 332.9m (1,092ft.) high tower on May 28, 2020, as the city's landmark reopened following the lifting on May 25 of the state of emergency, imposed due to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus outbreak. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)

Russian soldiers run along Red Square in central Moscow on September 29, 2022, as the square is sealed prior to a ceremony of the incorporation of the new territories into Russia. Russia will formally annex four territories of Ukraine its troops occupy at a grand ceremony in Moscow on Friday, the Kremlin has announced, after Russia suggested it could to use nuclear weapons to defend the territories. (Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP Photo)