The Taliban on Friday released a British couple held in Afghanistan for more than seven months on undisclosed charges, likely part of a wider effort to get their government recognized internationally years after taking power.
The case of Peter and Barbie Reynolds, aged 80 and 76, 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.
The Reynolds lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and ran an education and training organization in the country’s central province of Bamiyan, choosing to remain in the country after the Taliban seized power.
Qatar mediated the release
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.
“God is good, as they say in Afghanistan,” Barbie Reynolds said after she arrived at Kabul International Airport to fly out of the country.
Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi, Qatar’s minister of state at the Foreign Ministry, thanked Britain and Afghanistan’s government “for the fruitful cooperation” in freeing the Reynolds.
The Reynolds’ family members had called for their release, saying the couple was being mistreated and held on undisclosed charges. While the Taliban rejected the abuse allegations, they have never explained what prompted their detention.
The couple’s daughter, Sarah Entwistle, said the family was overwhelmed with gratitude and relief to have her parents back after their “incomprehensible detention by the Taliban.”
Speaking in the Qatari capital of Doha ahead of her parents’ arrival there, she also thanked the Qatari and British governments for their support and efforts to secure the couple’s release.
“This experience has reminded us of the power of diplomacy, empathy, and international cooperation,” she said.
The Taliban insist the couple violated an unnamed law
In a statement posted on X, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s foreign ministry, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said the couple had “violated Afghan law” and been released from prison Friday after a court hearing. He did not say what law they were alleged to have broken.
In July, U.N. 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.
Release comes as Afghanistan struggles
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 normalize relations. The meeting came after the Taliban in March released U.S. citizen George Glezmann, who was abducted while traveling through Afghanistan as a tourist.
It remains unclear what, if anything, the Taliban had been promised for the Reynolds’ release. However, Afghanistan’s list of needs is long.
The Western aid money that flowed into it after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion has been severely cut as needs continue to mount, particularly after a magnitude 6 quake on Aug. 31. Its economy remains on shaky ground.
But Western nations remain hesitant to provide money to the Taliban government, citing their restrictions on women and clamping down on personal freedoms.
Afghanistan also remains a focus of President Trump. On Thursday while visiting Britain, 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.