British couple Peter Reynolds Barbie Reynolds released by Taliban in Afghanistan

An elderly British couple were released by the Taliban this week after eight months in captivity. 

Barbie Reynolds, 76, and husband Peter Reynolds, 80, arrived in Qatar on Friday following months of negotiations between Qatar, the Taliban and Britain.  

The couple had lived in Afghanistan for 18 years, where they ran an education charity.

Despite the ordeal, Barbie Reynolds said they would return to Afghanistan if they could. They are both Afghan citizens.

“God is good, as they say in Afghanistan,” she added at the Kabul airport.

The couple, who had been taken into custody in February, were met by relatives, including their daughter, when they arrived in Doha, Qatar, on Friday. 

Their daughter, Sarah Entwistle, was clearly emotional and told reporters in Qatar, “Thank you for giving us our family back.”

She added that their family would be “forever grateful to the Qatari and British governments for standing with us during this difficult time.”

“This experience has reminded us of the power of diplomacy, empathy and international cooperation,” she said.

The couple’s son, Jonathan Reynolds, told Sky News from the US that their health would have started to deteriorate if they had been held any longer, despite Qatar making sure they had access to their doctor and medicines during their captivity. 

United Nations health experts had also warned that the couple’s captivity could harm or even kill them. 

Their family had accused the Taliban of mistreating the couple, and urged the government to explain why they had been detained. 

Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi, Qatar’s minister of state, said he was grateful “for the fruitful cooperation” between the UK and the Taliban in getting the pair released. 

The Taliban claimed that the couple had broken Afghan laws without going into detail. 

“We are very grateful that at least, today is a very great humanitarian day, that they will be reunited with their family,” Richard Lindsay, Britain’s special envoy to Afghanistan, said, adding that it was “obviously up to the [Afghanistan] authorities here to determine why they were detained.” 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer added, “I want to pay tribute to the vital role played by Qatar, including the emir, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, in securing their freedom.”

The US pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021, leaving the Taliban to return to power.