women human rights defenders are subject to the same types of risks as other human rights defenders but as women they are also targeted for or exposed to genderspecific threats and genderspecific violence the reasons for this are multifaceted and complex and depend on the specific context in which the individual woman is working often the work of women human rights defenders is seen as challenging traditional notions of family and gender roles in society which can lead to hostility by the general population and the authorities they are therefore stigmatized and ostracized by community leaders faithbased groups families and communities that consider them to be threatening religion honour or culture through their work