“Maria Rosaria (Mara) Carfagna (born December 18, 1975 in Salerno) is an Italian politician and former showgirl and topless model. After obtaining a degree in law, Carfagna worked for several years on Italian television shows and as a model. She later entered politics and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for Forza Italia party in 2006. On May 8, 2008, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi appointed her Minister for Equal Opportunity, a move that received international attention due to her background and her appearance. Carfagna has been called «The most beautiful minister in the world», and was ranked number one on Maxim's «World´s Hottest Politicians»”.

Photo: Minister Mara Carfagna attends a press conference for the Pink Box Project held at Palazzo Marino on November 24, 2008 in Milan, Italy. The Pink Box is a tracking device, designed to help women drivers in danger. (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images). MILAN, ITALY – NOVEMBER 24 2008

In this February 27, 1984, file photo, singer Placido Domingo laughs with members of the Rockettes at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The singer and dancers met while rehearsing for Channel Thirteen's “Gala of Stars 1984”. Nine women in the opera world have told The Associated Press that they were sexually harassed by Domingo, one of the most celebrated and powerful men in opera. The women say the encounters took place over three decades, at venues that included opera companies where he held top managerial positions. (Photo by Steve Friedman/AP Photo/File)

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)

“Wong Maye-E joined AP as a staff photographer in 2003. Based in Singapore, Maye-E's work is centered around Sports reportage, entertainment, politics, and regional news stories. Maye-E has covered headlining events such as the 2014 World Cup, Thailand political protests, and the devastation of the Philippines Typhoon”. – Associated Press. Photo: A baby black howler monkey (Alouatta caraya) clings onto its mother's back on Thursday January 29, 2009 in Singapore where it's national zoo is actively involved in the conservation and education of wildlife reserves. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)

A boat, center, is surrounded by Japan Cost Guard's patrol boats after some activists descended from the boat on Uotsuri Island, one of the islands of Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, in East China Sea Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012. Regional tensions flared on the emotional anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender as activists from China and South Korea used Wednesday's occasion to press rival territorial claims, prompting 14 arrests by Japanese authorities. The 14 people had traveled by boat from Hong Kong to the disputed islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan. (Photo by Yomiuri Shimbun/Masataka Morita/AP Photo)

“The technology was designed to address the risk associated with head-on or nearly head-on motorcycle collisions, which account for a large percentage of motorcycle crashes. The airbag was designed to deploy during a severe frontal collision in which a rider could be thrown forward from the motorcycle. Once deployed, the airbag stands upright in front of the rider to help absorb the rider’s kinetic energy prior to leaving the motorcycle”. – Ohio.Honda.com

Photo: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.'s world's first production motorcycle airbag system is introduced at a press conference at Honda's HQ on September 8, 2005 in Tokyo, Japan. The motorcycle airbag system to be installed to lessen the injuries of the rider is comprised of the airbag module that include the airbag and the inflator, crash sensors that monitor acceleration changes and an ECU that performs calculation to determine when a collision is occuring. (Photo by Junko Kimura/Getty Images)

A brown bear waits for food at the zoo in Madrid, Spain on July 30, 2016. (Photo by Jorge Sanz/Pacific Press/SIPA Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Palestinian barber Ramadan Odwan styles and straightens the hair of a customer with fire at his salon in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip February 2, 2017. In Ramadan Odwan's barbershop in Gaza, hair isn't just blow-dried, it's blowtorch-dried. “People have gone crazy about it, many people are curious to go through the experience and they are not afraid”, he told Reuters. “People here love adventures”. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)