How does a British couple devoted to Afghanistan end up spending eight months in a Taliban prison?
That’s the ordeal Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, have just emerged from — thin, frail, but finally free.
Married in Kabul in 1970, the couple ran a charitable training programme for nearly two decades in Bamiyan.
They stayed even after the Taliban seized power in 2021.
Yet on 1 February, while travelling home, they were suddenly detained.
Why Were They Imprisoned?
The Taliban never explained why, only saying the pair had “broken Afghan laws” and were released after judicial proceedings.
Their freedom came only after intense lobbying from their children and delicate mediation by Qatar.
“My dad was chained to murderers and criminals,” son Jonathan Reynolds said in July.
He described his parents’ malnutrition, convulsions and weeks without sunlight.
The UN had warned their health was at “irreparable” risk.
Now, after being transferred to a larger facility with better conditions and given medical supplies by Qatari diplomats, the couple are on their way to Qatar.
They are going for health checks. They will head back to Britain.
UK minister Hamish Falconer called their release a relief, thanking Qatar for its “essential role.”
For Peter and Barbie, it’s a bittersweet escape — home at last, but changed forever.
