Elderly couple who nearly died in Taliban prison hell could return to Afghanistan

British couple Barbie and Peter Reynolds have not ruled out returning to Afghanistan despite being held in a Taliban prison for nearly eight months until last week. The elderly couple appeared on Good Morning Britain today for the first time since their release.

Barbie, 76, and Peter, 80, were detained by the Taliban for an unknown reason in February and kept in a maximum-security prison in Kabul without charge. Barbie and Peter had lived in Afghanistan for 18 years running education programmes and chose to stay when the Taliban took over in 2021.

They were detained with their interpreter and American friend, Faye Hall, when flying to an airstrip near their home in Bamiyan. During their time in the hellish prison, Peter was handcuffed to rapists and murderers - including a man who had killed his wife and three children.

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They were finally freed last week after fearing that they would die in prison. Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain today, they opened up about their horrific experience.

But when asked by presenter Adil Ray whether they would return to Afghanistan despite their prison experience, 80-year-old Peter didn't give a firm answer.

"One hour at a time at the moment," he said. "We knew we were going to be here on Good Morning Britain but what happens in the next hour- we know we're going to the States today."

He added that they'll just have to take life an hour at a time.

Opening up about the conditions, Peter said that the "hardest thing" about being in the Taliban prison was not being able to see Barbie. "I didn't know was she alive, was she ok," he said.

Their daughter Sarah said: "It was definitely a scary time. I was passing love messages between the two of them. I would speak to dad and he'd say, 'Have you heard from mum?' It was always, 'tell her I love her,' 'tell him I miss him'. I think they know that!"

Peter also revealed why the couple chose to stay in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, saying: "We had a conviction that Afghanistan can change and it could just amaze the world. Instead of being a dysfunctional place where the world sees it as a place of violence, kidnappings, ransoms, drug abuse - it's the highest opium exporter in the whole world.

"Instead of that, there would be a miracle happen with this dysfunctional nation and the world would say, 'What happened to Afghanistan.' We are trainers and we can train trainers who could bring a radical change."

Barbie added: "I went in my gap year after I left school - beware of gap years, you might fall in love with the place - and I just saw people who were hard-working, resilient and really want to get on in the world."

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.

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