When Faye Hall, an American aid worker, was arrested by the Taliban alongside British couple Peter and Barbie Reynolds in February 2025, she had no idea how grim their ordeal would become. Now, months after her own release, Hall is sounding the alarm: the elderly couple are “literally dying” in prison, and time is running out for their rescue.
Hall’s warnings, delivered in a tearful interview with BBC Breakfast, paint a harrowing picture of life behind bars in Afghanistan for the Reynoldses, who are 80 and 76 years old, respectively. Despite four court appearances, the couple still have no idea why they are being detained. Their health, Hall reports, is failing rapidly in conditions that the United Nations has labeled “inhumane.”
“We just have these elderly people, they’re literally dying, and time is running out,” Hall told the BBC, her voice breaking. “I love them, I know they will be out very soon, don’t ever give up.” Hall, who spent two months imprisoned alongside Barbie Reynolds, was released as part of a negotiated agreement facilitated by Qatari officials. But Peter and Barbie remain in custody as of mid-September 2025, their fate uncertain and their family gripped by fear.
The couple’s ordeal began on February 1, 2025, when Hall, the Reynoldses, and an interpreter flew from Kabul to Bamiyan Province in a privately chartered plane. At a checkpoint, they were stopped by Taliban authorities. What followed was a Kafkaesque journey: days spent shuttling between police stations and prisons, culminating in their detention in a maximum-security facility. According to Hall, the prison was surrounded by barbed wire and patrolled by guards wielding machine guns. “It’s not a healthy environment and we were the only foreigners there,” she said, describing cramped cells and basic conditions—no beds, just used mats on the floor, and fluctuating numbers of detainees (sometimes as many as seven in a small room).
Peter and Barbie Reynolds are not strangers to Afghanistan. The couple first married in Kabul in 1970 and had lived in the country for 18 years prior to their arrest. Even after the Taliban’s 2021 return to power, they chose to stay, running a charity program focused on education and training. Their work, according to Hall and family members, had been approved by the Taliban authorities themselves.
But their long-standing commitment to the Afghan people has offered little protection. The reasons for their detention remain a mystery. Hall noted that many detainees in the prison have been held for years without charge, and the Reynoldses’ four court appearances have yielded no clarification of their legal status.
The physical and mental toll of imprisonment has been devastating. Hall recounted how Barbie, once healthy and active, suddenly lost the ability to stand or walk. “All of a sudden, one day, she just couldn’t walk, and she couldn’t get up. And we don’t know what’s wrong with her. Her legs were just giving out so and there’s no diagnosis and it’s not a precondition,” Hall explained to the BBC. Barbie has lost significant weight and, on at least one occasion, was unable to stand at all.
Peter’s condition is equally dire. He requires daily medication following heart surgery and cancer treatment, and his health has continued to decline despite some medical assistance provided by the Qatari government. According to their son Jonathan, Peter has developed symptoms resembling Parkinson’s disease. “He had experienced shaking in his hands, arms and face to the point he was on the floor and he couldn’t get up,” Jonathan told The Independent. Barbie, meanwhile, has suffered from anaemia and malnutrition—her hands and feet turning blue, Jonathan said, as a result of poor nutrition and lack of proper medical care.
“The reality is they may die in that prison, and this is why I’m pleading with whoever has the ability to release them and bring them home now,” Jonathan said in July 2025, echoing the family’s growing desperation.
The United Nations has not minced words about the couple’s predicament. In July 2025, UN officials warned that the Reynoldses could perish “in such degrading conditions” if they did not receive urgent medical attention, describing their detention as “inhumane.” Despite these warnings, efforts to secure their release have stalled.
Diplomatic avenues have proved frustratingly limited. After the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, the UK shut its embassy in Kabul and withdrew all diplomats. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has met with the Reynolds family and says it is supporting them, but acknowledges that consular support in Afghanistan is “severely limited.” The UK government continues to advise against all travel to Afghanistan, a warning underscored by the Reynoldses’ plight.
The US State Department, for its part, has condemned the Taliban’s “history of unjustly detaining foreign nationals.” In a statement, a spokesperson said, “They should permanently end their practice of hostage diplomacy and release all those unjustly detained immediately.” Hall herself has called on Washington and London to “work together” and do more to secure the couple’s release.
For their part, Taliban officials have rejected allegations of mistreatment. In July 2025, Amir Khan Muttaqi, the group’s foreign minister, claimed Peter and Barbie were “in constant contact with their families” and that “their human rights are being respected. They are being given full access to treatment, contact and accommodation.” However, these assurances ring hollow to those who have witnessed the reality on the ground. Hall’s testimony, as well as the accounts of the couple’s children, point to a very different experience—one marked by uncertainty, inadequate medical care, and a steady decline in both physical and mental health.
Even after being transferred from the maximum-security prison to the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) in late May 2025, with the promise of release within days, the couple remains in detention months later. The sense of limbo is palpable. “Every day you do not know where you’ll be tomorrow,” Hall said, describing the psychological strain of captivity. “It’s not just the physical conditions; it’s the mental toll, not knowing if you’ll ever get out.”
As the weeks drag on, the urgency of the Reynoldses’ situation grows. Their story, while unique in its particulars, is emblematic of the broader risks faced by foreign nationals in Afghanistan—a country where legal protections are fragile and diplomatic channels are all but closed. For Peter and Barbie Reynolds, the clock is ticking. Their family, friends, and supporters can only hope that international pressure will succeed where appeals and promises have so far failed.
The fate of these two devoted humanitarian workers hangs in the balance, a sobering reminder of the dangers faced by those who choose to help in the world’s most difficult places.
