The reality of divorce in South Asian culture

When Yvonne Sinniah told her parents she and her husband had separated, her father called her selfish and her mother said she would pray to Jesus for the marriage to be repaired.

Others automatically assumed she had kicked him out, when the reality was they mutually decided it was best her husband live elsewhere.

Now, more than three years later, Yvonne and her husband are divorced, but her mother still has their wedding photos hanging on the wall of her home. 

"There is this feeling that my daughter has failed.  We move to this country and this is what happens?"

Yvonne, a Canadian of Tamil Sri Lankan descent, felt the stigma of her divorce from her own community in many ways.

She has since become an outspoken advocate for divorce as a healthy way to end a relationship. She talks to Piya about her experience and what the South Asian community needs to do to accept people, especially women, who get a divorce.  

This story originally aired on November 5, 2016