Barbie and Peter Reynolds have been held in Taliban captivity in Afghanistan for nearly six months, and the reason for their detainment remains unknown — now, their son is speaking out.
Family members of an elderly couple being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan fear the two could “die in prison” after giving “their life in service”.
Back in February, Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband, Peter, 80, were taken into captivity while traveling to their residence in Bamyan Province, central Afghanistan. The elderly couple has been held for nearly six months, and the reason behind their detainment still remains unknown.
Now, their son Jonathan Reynolds, has issued a desperate plea, stating they “need out now” as their health is “deteriorating fast”. Jonathan’s parents have been detained without any charges being brought against them and up until eight weeks ago, they were kept apart in a maximum security prison.
READ MORE: Brit pensioners locked up in Taliban jail chained to ‘killers, rapists and man possessed by demon’
Their four grown-up children, who reside in the US and UK, have twice written privately to the Taliban leadership and made public pleas for their parents’ release. The couple had been running school training programmes in Afghanistan for 18 years, choosing to stay even after the Taliban seized control in 2021.
Jonathan has explained how his father is suffering serious convulsions while in captivity and his mother is “numb” from malnutrition and anaemia. He also shared that the last telephonic conversation the family had with their parents was on June 15, and that officials from the UK Foreign Office have visited them in the last week. However, Jonathan has expressed his extreme frustration with the situation.
Acknowledging that the Foreign Office is “working very very hard”, Jonathan added “yet my parents are still in there”. Lamenting over his parents’ imprisonment, he said: “To be able to sit in the same room as them and have that kind of communication and not be able to walk out with them, is very frustrating.
“It’s horrific that they’re still held in captivity without, to our understanding, for a period of time without any natural sunlight and not even allowed outside. So their health in so many areas is deteriorating, and it’s deteriorating fast.”
Jonathan added that they are “not in good health” and “they need out, and they need out now”.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, told reporters in Kabul on Wednesday that “efforts are under way to secure their release, but the process is not complete” and that the elderly pair were receiving medical care.
“All their human rights are being respected,” shared the foreign minister, adding that Barbie and Peter were in “occasional contact” with their family.
On Monday, the United Nations warned that the elderly couple may perish if they do not receive medical care at once “in such degrading conditions”, while labelling their detention “inhumane”.
Jonathan has said it’s been a “harrowing and surreal” five months of waiting for their parents’ release. Peter and Barbie hold Afghan citizenship and have been living in the Middle Eastern country for the past 18 years, running education projects.
One of the couple’s projects involved training children and women, and had reportedly been approved by local authorities — even though the Taliban has banned the education of girls over the age of 12 and has completely prohibited women from working ever since taking over control of Afghanistan.
Speaking to the BBC , Jonathan said, “My dad was chained to murderers and criminals”, adding, “My dad’s health is deteriorating fast in particular. Now he’s maybe got something like early Parkinson’s — tremors and shakes down the right side of his body, his arms and face.”
According to his son, Peter reportedly spent “half an hour convulsing on the prison floor” before Barbie called for a prison guard to move her husband onto a “mattress pad on the floor” that serves as a bed. Jonathan shared that mother “has blue hands and feet to do with anaemia, malnutrition” and that his parents are “just not getting the right healthcare”.
Peter and Barbie’s children had previously shared that a remote medical assessment conducted by a cardiologist suggested that their father may have suffered a stroke or a silent heart attack. They also noted that their father was suffering from a red, peeling, bleeding face, which could indicate a recurrence of his skin cancer.
Their mother, Barbie, has continued to experience numbness in her feet, a symptom linked to anaemia, possibly due to inadequate food in the maximum security prison, her children reported. A medical assessment highlighted that this additional strain could potentially lead to heart failure.
The couple, who recently celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary, were detained up until eight weeks ago at the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul, according to their children. They were then moved to the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), with the promise of release within two to three days.
However, another two months have passed with no sign of their release. While at Pul-e-Charkhi prison, the couple reportedly had access to phones and would call their children daily from the prison yard.
The children revealed their parents had better conditions at the GDI but still lacked a bed or furniture and were sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Their son explained that since May 18 they have been confined for “weeks on end in a basement cell with no natural light”.
Jonathan revealed any updates the siblings have received have been “they’ll be released in two to three days”. He also asked the crucial question — which is who holds the power to free his parents.
Jonathan said: “I don’t understand why an 80-year-old and a 76-year-old in failing health are being held without reason, without cause, without charges… We just want them home… we want to get them out of that country.”
The family’s priority is now on appealing to “whoever has the ability to influence or turn that key and get them out of there to do it and do it now”, with Jonathan stating: “I don’t know how long my parents’ health is going to last, and I think it would be a tragedy for them to die in a prison in a country where they have chosen to give their life in service.”
A Foreign Office spokesman has said: “We are supporting the family of two British nationals who are detained in Afghanistan.”