This Algerian woman’s husband divorced her after she survived breast cancer

An Algerian woman who has undergone a mastectomy and is only identified as Linda is reportedly being divorced by her husband after completing her radiation therapy to treat her breast cancer.

His reason? 

"You’re a half-woman," he told his wife and mother of their three children.

In an interview with AJ+, the cancer survivor said "there are worse things than [cancer] ... Like abandoning your sick wife." 

Instead of supporting her through this traumatizing and painful journey, the 50-year-old husband decided to walk out on her when she needed him most. 

Linda is not the only woman in Algeria to have undergone a mastectomy.

The operation, which is carried out as a treatment for breast cancer, involves the surgical removal of either one or both breasts depending on the risk of cancer.

Many people expressed their remorse for Linda online, describing what her husband did as "shameful" and "disgusting."

And while thousands of Algerian women get diagnosed with breast cancer every year, the illness is still viewed as a shameful stigma, with patients hiding it from their close families and friends for fear of being ridiculed and deemed "less feminine."

One patient even "started wearing the Islamic scarf before chemotherapy so her husband’s family would have no idea when her hair started falling out," said Samia Gasmi, head of cancer charity Nour Doha told AFP. 

Nour Doha, which translates to "Daylight," is an Algerian NGO and a cancer charity aimed at supporting breast cancer patients through the difficult treatment.

"[Some women] say I won’t share [my diagnostics] because other people will rejoice my misfortune," Gasmi said.

Gasmi said some patients keep their illness hidden from their husbands for fear of abandonment. 

"Some sink into depression," Gasmi added. "Others end up in shelters because they have nowhere else to go once their husbands abandon them."

Having completed her treatment, Linda’s health is now recovering with her children by her side, and admitted that her cancer freed her from her husband, who "beat her and stole her salary."