An elderly British couple who were detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan for almost eight months have been freed.
Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, were released on Friday following mediation led by Qatar.
They were paraded on camera before boarding a plane to Doha for medical checks, after which they will be flown to the UK to reunite with family.
The couple, who have lived in Afghanistan for the past 18 years, was first detained by the Taliban’s interior ministry on February 1.
They were transferred to a maximum security prison in Kabul in March.
Barbie and Peter, educators who wed in Kabul in 1970, were encouraged to flee the country when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 but decided to stay as ‘they could not leave when Afghans were in their hour of need’.
Together, they run an organisation called Rebuild, which facilitates education and training programmes for civilians including mothers and children.
They were arrested earlier this year as they travelled back to their home in Bamyan province, in central Afghanistan.
Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, were detained by the Taliban’s interior ministry on February 1
Qatari and British diplomats, left, pose with the released British couple, Barbie and Peter Reynolds, aboard a plane before departing to Qatar from Kabul, Afghanistan
Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, were released from detention after spending almost eight months in Afghanistan
They were held in Afghanistan for more than seven months on undisclosed charges, passing between several facilities where they faced interrogation.
The Taliban released the couple as part of a wider effort to get their government recognised internationally years after taking power, an official said.
The case underlined the concerns of the West over the actions of the Taliban since they overthrew the country’s U.S.-backed government in a 2021 lightning offensive.
Qatar, an energy-rich nation on the Arabian Peninsula that mediated talks between the U.S. and the Taliban before the American withdrawal, helped in releasing the Reynolds.
The couple left Afghanistan on Friday, a diplomat said. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations in the case.
The Reynolds’ family members in the United Kingdom repeatedly called for the couple’s release, saying they were being mistreated and held on undisclosed charges. While the Taliban rejected the abuse allegations, they have never explained what prompted their detention.
In July, United Nations human rights experts warned the couple’s physical and mental health was deteriorating rapidly and that they were at risk of irreparable harm or even death.
Earlier this month, the Taliban said they had reached an agreement with U.S. envoys on a prisoner exchange as part of an effort to normalise relations.
The couple was paraded on camera before boarding a plane out of the country
The couple left Afghanistan on Friday, a diplomat said
Barbie and Peter, educators who wed in Kabul in 1970, were encouraged to flee the country when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 but decided to stay as ‘they could not leave when Afghans were in their hour of need’
The meeting came after the Taliban in March released U.S. citizen George Glezmann, who was abducted while traveling through Afghanistan as a tourist.
Afghanistan remains a focus of U.S. President Donald Trump.
On Thursday, while visiting the U.K., Trump suggested that he is working to reestablish a U.S. presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
Zakir Jalaly, an official at the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, dismissed the idea.
Barbie and Peter will soon reunite with their family.
Throughout their detention, the couple’s four children repeatedly raised the fear that their parents would die in custody if they weren’t released.
Both had a history of health issues. Peter has had heart conditions and was said to be in urgent need of medical care in July, while his wife is anaemic and has frequently collapsed since being detained.
Speaking moments before boarding the plane out of Afghanistan, Barbie told Sky: ‘My message is God is good, as the they say in Afghanistan.
‘We are looking forward to returning to Afghanistan if we can. We are Afghan citizens.’
‘We are just very thankful,’ her husband said.
The couple will fly to Qatar for medical checks, a Qatari official said, before travelling on to the UK, despite having a long-term residence in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan province.
During their time held by the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) in Kabul, the couple were said to be sleeping on mattresses on the floor.
Before that, they were detained at the notorious Pul-e-Charkhi maximum security prison in the capital, which Peter described as the ‘nearest thing to hell I can imagine’.
Speaking from a payphone inside the prison in April, he voiced his fears for his 76-year-old wife, who was being held in the institution’s women’s quarters.
‘I’ve been joined up with rapists and murderers by handcuffs and ankle cuffs, including a man who killed his wife and three children, shouting away, a demon-possessed man,’ he said in a recording shared with the Sunday Times.
He added how his circumstances – ‘a cage rather than a cell’ – were ‘VIP conditions’ compared with those in for the women. He said he had lost weight thanks to a single meal a day, usually nan bread and chickpeas with green tea for breakfast.
Peter also pleaded with his family not to pay any ransom to secure his release, saying ‘it doesn’t solve anything if millions of dollars are paid’.
In July, UN experts who specialise on torture and punishments in Afghanistan joined the chorus of voices demanding the couple’s release.
‘We see no reason why this older couple should be detained at all, and have requested an immediate review of the grounds of their detention.
‘It is inhumane to keep them locked up in such degrading conditions and more worrying when their health is so fragile.’
The Reynolds’ children, who live in the UK and the U.S., wrote privately to the Taliban leadership twice and made numerous public appeals for the release of their parents.
They described how Peter had been suffering with serious convulsion and had a mini-stroke in detention, while Barbie was experiencing malnutrition.
The couple moved to Afghanistan after falling in love with the country when they travelled there as students at Bath University.
They were arrested alongside their Chinese-American friend Faye Hall, who had rented a plane to travel with them, and a local Afghan translator from the couple’s Rebuild training business.
Hall was released from Taliban jail at the end of March after the Trump administration lifted bounties worth $10 million from the heads of senior Taliban figures including Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister.
Hall recently told the BBC that the couple was ‘literally dying’ in prison and that ‘time is running out’.
After taking power, the Taliban introduced a ban on women working and education for girls older than 12.
The government recently removed some 140 books written by women in universities as part of a new ban that outlaws specific material that exhibits ‘anti-Sharia and Taliban policies’.
Universities were told they were no longer permitted to teach 18 subjects because they were ‘in conflict with the principles of Sharia and the system’s policy’.
After he was detained, Peter said he was told by a Taliban official that they confiscated 59 books from the couple’s home that were ‘against Islam’.
Once they were taken by authorities, the couple were originally told that they would soon be released, but instead their phones were confiscated and they were transported to the interior ministry in the capital.
One of the couple’s daughters, Susie Romer, said her parents were being held in ‘absolutely horrific’ conditions, that they were receiving one meal per day and there were mice and cockroaches ‘running around’.
In an interview with Channel 5, she described how hearing her parents ‘weep’ on the phone was ‘excruciating’ for her.
‘My dad was chained to murderers and criminals,’ their son, Jonathan, told the BBC, adding that they had at one point been held in a basement for six weeks without sunlight.
The UK’s minister for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hamish Falconer, said he was relieved to hear the news that Peter and Barbie were no longer detained in Afghanistan.
‘I look forward to them being reunited with their family soon,’ he said.
‘The UK has worked intensively since their detention and has supported the family throughout.
‘The State of Qatar played an essential role in this case, for which I am hugely grateful. Qatar continues to play a critical role in conflict mediation in the Middle East and beyond.
‘The government’s ability to help those in need of consular support in Afghanistan is extremely limited. Our travel advice is clear that individuals should not travel to Afghanistan.’
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
