Taliban terrorists arrested Peter and Barbie Reynolds, British nationals and longtime residents of Afghanistan, and cut off communication with their families in Britain, relatives lamented to the BBC on Sunday.
Multiple reports indicate that the couple was arrested under suspicion of illicitly education women – specifically, mothers whose children were receiving an education from the Reynolds’ education organization, Rebuild. The Taliban has outlawed almost all education for girls and women beyond primary-grade education and effectively imprisoned women in their homes through a variety of laws banning them from public spaces and even regulating the location of windows to prevent the possibility of men outside potentially seeing a woman in her home.
Peter Reynolds, 79, and wife Barbie have reportedly lived in Afghanistan for 18 years, organizing education projects for the local population. Daughter Sarah Entwistle told British media that the couple refused to evacuate the company after the bloodthirsty Taliban returned to power in 2021.
The Taliban overthrew the U.S.-backed government of Afghanistan in August of that year following former President Joe Biden’s disastrous decision to violate an agreement brokered with the jihadists by President Donald Trump. Following their return to power, Taliban jihadists have been unsparing in arresting foreigners they consider a threat to their extremist interpretation of sharia. Among those arrested have been a Chinese citizen on allegations of stealing lithium, a critical technology mineral, in January 2023; over a dozen nonprofit workers, including an American, in September 2023, and several Americans released in a Biden-brokered deal in January.
Entwistle told the BBC in a report published on Sunday that the Reynoldses disappeared about two weeks ago but that the exact date of their arrest was not clear, nor were the charges against them. The U.K. Guardian reported that the couple were arrested on February 1 in Bamiyan province, Afghanistan, where they lived.
“It is not known exactly what the couple were arrested for but projects run by them include one training mothers and children,” the BBC explained, “which had apparently been approved by the local authorities despite a ban by the Taliban on women working and on education for girls older than the age of 12.”
Entwistle and her siblings wrote a letter directly to the Taliban pleading for their parents.
“We do not understand the reasons behind their arrest,” the letter read in part. “They have communicated their trust in you, and that as Afghan citizens they will be treated well.”
“We recognise that there have been instances where exchanges have been beneficial for your government and western nations. However, our parents have consistently expressed their commitment to Afghanistan,” the letter continued, “stating that they would rather sacrifice their lives than become part of ransom negotiations or be traded.”
The Guardian reported that the couple had allegedly received approval from local Taliban officials in Bamiyan for the mother-child project. One possibility regarding their arrest is that more highly ranked officials did not know of the project and, upon realizing that the education program included adult women, even in their capacity as mothers, they interpreted as a violation of Taliban law.
Two others were reportedly arrested alongside the Reynoldses: “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,” according to the Guardian.
“This is really bad,” Entwistle said in a separate interview with the Sunday Times. “My mother is 75 and my father almost 80 and [he] needs his heart medication after a mini-stroke.”
The daughter added the detail that the couple had initially contacted the family in the U.K. to inform them of their arrest and said they were in good condition, but had not contacted the family for weeks.
Speaking to the Times, Entwistle emphasized that her parents sought approval from Taliban jihadists for their projects and in no way challenged their authority.
“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,” she claimed. The Times reported that Barbie Reynolds received a certificate of appreciation from the Taliban, an exceedingly rare gesture granted to a woman.
The Taliban has not commented on the case at press time. A growing font of evidence suggests, however, that the issue of women’s rights has become a wedge causing disagreement within Taliban leadership, particularly arising in reported disputes between the core of the Taliban, led by “supreme leader” Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, and the Haqqani network, a terrorist subgroup that served as the link between the Taliban and the international jihadist organization al-Qaeda. At the peak of their cooperation, Haqqani network leaders served as mouthpieces for the Taliban, most prominently when the Taliban’s now-interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, published an article in the New York Times titled “What We, the Taliban, Want.”
Reporting by the Afghan dissident newspaper Etilaat Roz suggests that Sirajuddin Haqqani is heavily involved, if not in charge of, the Taliban faction opposing Akhundzada. Haqqani himself publicly challenged Akhundzada in 2023 by delivering public remarks challenging his secretive behavior.
“Monopolizing power and hurting the reputation of the entire system are not to our benefit,” Haqqani said at a school event, demanding “engagement with the people” from Taliban leadership.
Etilaat Roz reported in early February that Haqqani may have ordered the most controversial speech by a Taliban official since the jihadists returned to power in the country: a pro-women’s rights screed by former Deputy Former Minister Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who reportedly fled the country shortly after delivering it to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Stanikzai, attending a school graduation ceremony in January, declared that the Taliban was “committing injustice against 20 million people,” referring to girls and women.
“We have deprived them of all their rights; they have no inheritance rights, no share in determining their husband’s rights, they are sacrificed in forced marriages,” he asserted, “they are not allowed to study, they cannot go to mosques, the doors of universities and schools are closed to them, and they are not allowed in religious schools either.”
“There is no justification for closing the doors of education to girls,” he concluded. “We request the leaders of the Islamic Emirate to open the doors of education. There is no acceptable excuse for this, and there will never be.”
Last week, Etilaat Roz reported that Sirajuddin Haqqani and several other high-ranking Taliban officials had stopping coming into work in Kabul for about a month, including Deputy Prime Minister for Economics Abdul Ghani Baradar. Haqqani spent much of that time in the UAE, according to the newspaper, while Baradar was in Qatar, where the Taliban maintained its “political office” during the 20-year Afghan War. The Taliban had not published any images of the officials at their jobs in their propaganda since that time.
Of particular interest is the fact that the Taliban’s top spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, recently told reporters that Haqqani was back in Afghanistan, a claim for which there is no evidence. Mujahid is reportedly closer to the Akhundzada faction of the Taliban.
The report said various reports are inconclusive as to whether Haqqani was forced to flee the country or is not returning to the Kabul office as a form of protest.