The Taliban have arrested a British couple in their 70s for “teaching mothers parenting with children”.
Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife, Barbie, 75, were detained when returning to their home in Bamiyan province on 1 February.
The couple have been running projects in schools in Afghanistan for 18 years and decided to stay in the country after the Taliban seized power in 2021. One of the projects involved training mothers and children in Bamiyan, one of the largest cities in central Afghanistan.
There is a ban on women working and on female education beyond primary school, but this project had apparently been approved by the Bamiyan local authority.
The couple were arrested alongside an American-Chinese friend, Faye Hall, who had rented a plane to travel with them, and a translator from the couple’s Rebuild training business.
An anonymous Rebuild employee told the PA news agency the group was informed that their flight “did not coordinate with the local government”.
For the first three days after their arrest, the couple kept in touch with their children via text message, explaining they were being held by the interior ministry and stating they were fine.
Then the texts stopped. Their children have not been in contact with them since.
The Reynolds’s home in Nayak has since been raided and their employees have been interrogated about whether the couple were engaging in religious proselytising, which all of them denied.
“This is really bad,” their daughter, Sarah Entwistle, from Daventry, Northamptonshire, told the Sunday Times. “My mother is 75 and my father almost 80 and [he] needs his heart medication after a mini-stroke.
“They were just trying to help the country they loved. The idea they are being held because they were teaching mothers with children is outrageous.”
With her three brothers, she has written an open letter to the Taliban leadership, begging for her parents’ release.
The couple met at the University of Bath and married in Kabul in 1970 after falling in love with Afghanistan. Barbie went on to become the first woman to receive a certificate of appreciation from the Taliban.
In the letter, Entwistle and her brothers pleaded with the Taliban to set their parents free so that they can continue their good work in schools and pointed out they have been given dual citizenship.
“We do not understand the reasons behind their arrest,” they wrote. “Our parents have consistently expressed their commitment to Afghanistan, stating that they would rather sacrifice their lives than become part of ransom negotiations or be traded.”
The anonymous employee, who said Rebuild workers were “in danger” and living in hiding, described the couple as “the most honourable people I have ever met in my life”.
They told PA they feared for Peter’s condition. “It seems that if Peter and Barbie are not released soon, Peter may lose his life because he needs medication, and the Taliban are not allowing him it,” they added.
As well as their project in Bamiyan, the couple had been running projects in five schools in Kabul. “The Taliban leaders were so impressed and inspired by the programmes Mum and Dad were offering, they said they would like them set up in every province of Afghanistan,” Entwistle said, adding that her parents had done nothing without permission.
“They were meticulous about keeping by the rules even as they kept changing,” she said.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has been contacted for comment.
