An elderly British couple have been arrested by the Taliban for ‘teaching good parenting skills to mothers’.
Peter, 79, and Barbie Reynolds, 75, were arrested on February 1 after they returned to their home in the Bamiyan province in Afghanistan.
The couple, who have been running training schools in Afghanistan for the last 18 years, were text messaging their four children to tell them they were being held by the interior ministry and that they were ok.
But after three days family members said the messages suddenly stopped with daughter Sarah Entwistle saying: ‘This is really bad.’
The Reynolds’ home has been raided and their employees have been quizzed by the Taliban about whether they were engaging in religious proselytising, reported The Sunday Times.
The couple, who wed in Kabul in 1970, were urged to flee the country when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 but decided to stay as ‘they could not leave when Afghans were in their hour of need’.
Barbie was even honoured by the Taliban to become the first woman to receive a certificate of appreciation after they were ‘impressed and inspired’ by the programmes the couple offered.
Mrs Entwistle, from Daventry, Northamptonshire, said. ‘My mother is 75 and my father almost 80 and [he] needs his heart medication after a mini-stroke.
‘They were just trying to help the country they loved. The idea they are being held because they were teaching mothers with children is outrageous.’
The Reynolds have dual citizenship and run five schools in Kabul, which includes a mothers and children training programme reportedly approved by authorities.
Mrs Entwistle and her three brothers have written an open letter to the Taliban urging for their mother and father to be released.
The worried daughter has insisted her parents have done nothing wrong and ‘were meticulous about keeping by the rules’.
The Reynolds have previously told their family they never want to be ‘part of ransom negotiations or be traded’ and ‘would rather sacrifice their lives’.
The couple met while they were studying at Bath University where Barbie obtained a BSc degree in sociology and psychology.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, women have been progressively erased from public spaces, prompting the United Nations to denounce the ‘gender apartheid’ the administration has established.
Taliban authorities have banned post-primary education for girls and women, restricted employment and blocked access to parks and other public places.
In October, the Taliban banned women from hearing other women’s voices in a cruel rule which sparked fears that women will now no longer be able to talk to each other.
Afghanistan’s minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, Khalid Hanafi said at the time: ‘Even when an adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly enough for them to hear.
‘How could they be allowed to sing if they aren’t even permitted to hear [each other’s] voices while praying, let alone for anything else.’
He said these are ‘new rules and will be gradually implemented, and God will be helping us in each step we take.’
Any woman who dares to break the new rules will be arrested and sent to prison, the terror group said.
Women have already been banned from speaking loudly in their own homes, and are not allowed to be heard outside.
Women are also ordered to cover their faces ‘to avoid temptation and tempting others’, and are banned from speaking if unfamiliar men who aren’t husbands or close relatives, are present.
‘If it is necessary for women to leave their homes, they must cover their faces and voices from men’ and be accompanied by a ‘male guardian’, according to the rules approved by the Taliban’s supreme leader.
Some local radio and television stations have also stopped broadcasting female voices.
The UN reported that just one per cent of women believe they have influence in their communities, and that just nearly one in 10 women knows another who has tried to commit suicide since the Taliban took over.
On top of this, nearly one in five women said they hadn’t spoken to another woman outside of their immediate family in three months.