Family fears for elderly UK couple held by Taliban

Taliban fighters stand guard on Nadir Khan hill in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

The family of elderly British couple Peter and Barbie Reynolds, detained for six months without charge in Afghanistan, fears the worst as their health declines.

“I don’t know if they’re still alive,” said their son, Jonathan Reynolds, who has not spoken to his parents since their last phone call on June 15.

“How would I know if they were no longer alive? Who’s going to call me? The Taliban’s never called me. Who’s going to call? I don’t know,” asked Reynolds, one of the couple’s four children.

Peter Reynolds, 80, and his 76-year-old wife were arrested in February along with Chinese-American friend, Faye Hall, who was released in March, and an Afghan translator.

The couple were married in Kabul in 1970, and have spent almost two decades living in Afghanistan running educational programs after moving there. They also became official Afghan citizens.

Taliban officials have refused to detail why the couple was arrested in February as they were returning to their home in central Bamiyan province.

“They were told by the judge that they were not guilty of any crimes,” said their son.

“So many times we’ve been told two to three days and then you’ll be released ... But it’s six months on Saturday,” he added.

The couple were first held in a maximum security facility, “then in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred” to the intelligence services in Kabul, according to UN experts.

In late July, the independent UN human rights experts called for the Taliban to free the pair warning of the “rapid deterioration” of their physical and mental health, stating that they “risk irreparable harm or even death”.

UN experts shared a voice message from the couple with their son, but he has not been reassured.

“You have to remember their age,” Reynolds, 45, told AFP during a video call from his home in Chicago.

“Are they in danger? Yeah, they’re an elderly couple who are unjustly held ... in captivity. They are not free,” he said.

“Their bodies are not used to being put through this, they’re being trapped, they’re sleeping on a little mattress on the floor,” he said.

‘Weak and fragile’

The couple’s children have set up a website called Free Peter and Barbie to campaign for their release, which counts down the number of days they have been held.

Since being detained, Peter Reynolds has suffered two eye infections and intermittent tremors in his head and left arm, according to the UN experts.

“My dad has had heart attacks ... he has a stent in his heart. He has had skin cancer,” Jonathan Reynolds said.

“So he needs an ECG (electrocardiogram), blood test, EEG (electroencephalogram), CT scans. He needs all of that,” he added.

His mother suffers from malnourishment and anemia after months of being “fed once a day in prison,” her son added.

She is “weak and fragile,” the experts said.

The Taliban government’s top diplomat Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said the couple had been receiving medical care.

“Their human rights are being respected,” he told a press conference in Kabul.

“They are being provided with medical care. They are in occasional contact with their families.”

“Their case isn’t anything serious,” the Taliban interior ministry said in April, adding they hoped it would be “resolved soon”.

The couple run an organization in Afghanistan called Rebuild, which provides educational programs for women and children.

“My parents have never thought about their security and safety,” Reynolds said, it was “no way to treat an elderly couple who’ve given the last two decades of their life for the good of Afghanistan”.

When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the couple remained in Afghanistan against the advice of the British embassy.

Their son recalled the embassy asking them: “Why are you staying? You’re on your own.”

His parents had replied: “How could we leave these people in their darkest hour? We came here because we love these people, and that’s what we’ll give the rest of our lives to, even if it means we die.”