African ostrichs are seen during sunny autumn day in the largest ostrich farm “Nornieki” in Snepele, Latvia, 18 October 2021. (Photo by Toms Kalnins/EPA/EFE)

Models showcase collection by designer Zhang Kejia during the 2021 Kunming Fashion Week on December 15, 2021 in Kunming, Yunnan Province of China. (Photo by Li Jiaxian/China News Service via Getty Images)

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 reveller smeared in vermilion powder celebrates the Bisket Jatra Festival in Thimi in the Bhaktapur District on the outskirts of Kathmandu on April 15, 2023. (Photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP Photo)

Mother and son in disguise attend a Halloween celebration at Taipei Children's Amusement Park in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, October 29, 2023. (Photo by Chiang Ying-ying/AP Photo)

Public Space series, 2015. This series by Morteza Niknahad and Behnam Zakeri tends toward cinema, taking an almost cartoonish view of modern life in Iran. This work was inspired by the social life of dolphins. (Photo by Morteza Niknahad and Behnam Zakeri/The Guardian)

A girl yawns as she and others wait for the start of their first day in school, an occasion known as the Day of Knowledge, in the small town Ignalina, some 110km (68 miles) north of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Monday, September 2, 2019. (Photo by Mindaugas Kulbis/AP Photo)

A Muslim worshipper belonging to the Mouride Brotherhood prays in the sea during the “prayer preformed at sea” ceremony in Dakar on September 21, 2023. Followers of the Muslim Mouride brotherhood in Senegal gather for a ceremony celebrating the prayer that the founder of the brotherhood, Cheikh Amadou Bamba preformed at sea when exiled to Gabon by the French. (Photo by John Wessels/AFP Photo)