An elderly couple has shared their harrowing experience of being detained in one of the Taliban’s most feared prisons, describing the conditions as “the closest thing to Hell.” Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, endured separation and lived in squalid, rat-infested cells at Pul-e-Charkhi, a notorious prison in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The British couple, who had made Afghanistan their home for 18 years, found themselves imprisoned for three months in 2025, as part of an eight-month ordeal under Taliban control. Despite their prolonged detention, they have yet to be given any explanation for their arrest.

Constructed in the 1970s, Pul-e-Charkhi was designed as a maximum-security facility with a capacity for 5,000 inmates. However, it frequently houses up to 15,000 prisoners, leading to severe overcrowding and deplorable living conditions.

Inmates at the prison have reportedly faced routine torture and beatings by the guards, though the Reynolds were spared this particular cruelty. Nonetheless, the prison’s lack of basic amenities subjects detainees to freezing temperatures during winter and unbearable heat in the summer.

Previous reports from the prison have indicated that guards regularly torture and beat prisoners, though the couple did not suffer this fate.

And with extremely basic amenities, prisoners freeze during the winter and are left in sweltering conditions in the summer.  

The couple, who got married in Kabul in 1970, said that many women held in the prison were detained by the Taliban for arbitrary reasons. One was jailed for daring to drive a car in the ultra-conservative country, while another said she had been imprisoned because her husband had murdered someone. 

Peter and Barbie were arrested earlier as they travelled back to their home in Bamyan province, in central Afghanistan, on undisclosed charges. 

The elderly Briton was held in the men’s wing, and was put in a cell with just two other men. They had their own latrine and shower. 

Peter, who has a serious heart condition, was cuffed and chained to rapists and murderers, they told the Times. 

But Barbie’s conditions were far worse, the couple said. Her cell held 15 women and two children with just five bunk beds between them all, one of which served as a basic kitchen. As a result, some of the women were forced to sleep on the bare floor. 

A member of the Taliban stands guard inside the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul on September 16, 2021

A Taliban member stands inside a prison cell at Pul-e-Charkhi prison, located on the outskirts of Kabul on October 17, 2021

Barbie said: ‘Everybody gets a blanket provided by an NGO, which we had to wash ourselves every two weeks. There were four showers but none worked, so we had to use taps and all the water ran into a drain full of trash down the middle of the corridor.’

Between a total of 230 women and 40 children held in the wing, there were just seven ‘squatty potties’, she said, adding: ‘Sometimes the children missed the target, so it wasn’t very pleasant.’

Barbie said that she was able to speak to her fellow prisoners in Farsi, who told her they had been jailed for little to no reason.  

She said: ‘The girl in the bunk above me was 19 and in jail for driving a car. Women aren’t allowed to drive under the Taliban. And worst of all it was her boyfriend’s car. I mean, you can’t have boyfriends. So she got six months.

‘There was a mother of four who was caught talking to a man and her husband got jealous and killed him. Of course it’s never the man’s fault, so she was given a five-year sentence and couldn’t see her children.’

One woman she spoke to said she had been imprisoned for daring to take a job after her husband and sons had lost work. Barbie said: ‘Ninety per cent of the women I was with were not criminals. Many don’t know how long their sentences are. There are women who’ve been there for months and months, even years, just waiting.’

Barbie said nutrition was among the biggest challenges she and her husband faced. The couple were detained during Ramadan, meaning they were given just one meal a day. 

After this, they were given two meals: ‘A piece of naan bread and some overcooked vegetables for lunch and rice and maybe kidney beans for dinner. Everything was dripping with oil.’

Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie Reynolds, 76, landed back in the UK in September 2025

Barbie and Peter got married in Kabul in 1970

Built in the 1970s, Pul-e-Charkhi is meant to house 5,000 people but it regularly holds up to 15,000 prisoners

A member of the Taliban sits inside the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul on September 16, 2021

Twice a week they were given meat, which Barbie said was ‘almost inedible.’

She said: ‘It was bones, skin and fat, and if you managed to get even one or two morsels of meat you were lucky. If you wanted anything else, like breakfast, you had to buy it from the shop, if you had money.

‘When I say shop, it was a metal shipping container with a little hole cut in the side. You couldn’t really see but they had eggs, potatoes, cucumbers and cream cheese.’

As a result, she quickly began suffering from malnutrition and anaemia. Barbie said she spent her 76th birthday collapsed from malnutrition. 

She said that there was very little for prisoners to do. Women passed the time by making prayer beads and bracelets with supplies sent by charities. 

As as a result, tensions were often high and fights would break out. In one instance, one woman was attacked so badly she needed to be taken to hospital.  

The couple were eventually sent to a windowless basement infested with mice and cockroaches, run by the Taliban’s intelligence services, for five weeks. 

After a group of UN experts warned last June that the couple might die without proper medical car, they were then sent to a house in a military enclave, guarded by 12 armed men. 

Eventually, thanks to diplomatic efforts from British and Qatari officials, they were handed over to the UK’s foreign office. 

The Taliban released the couple as part of a wider effort to get their government recognised internationally years after taking power, an official said at the time. 

Barbie Reynolds hugs her daughter Sarah Entwistle after landing at the airport in Doha on September 19, 2025

Pictures show the emotional moment the couple were reunited with their daughter Sarah Entwistle, who has tirelessly advocated for her parents’ release

Taliban members are seen from a window as they inspect inside a prison cell at Pul-e-Charkhi prison, located on the outskirts of Kabul on October 17, 2021

Taliban fighters walk inside an empty cell at the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Sept. 13, 2021

Upon their arrival at Heathrow Airport in September, the couple were seen smiling broadly as they walked through the arrivals, but did not talk to reporters.

The couple were reunited with their daughter, Sarah Entwistle, at the airport in Doha before the family flew back to the UK.

The family said in a statement that their release is a ‘moment of intense joy’.

‘We are overwhelmed with gratitude and relief to share that our parents, Peter and Barbie Reynolds, have been released after seven months and 21 days in detention by the Taliban,’ the family said in a statement.

Thanking Qatari officials for facilitating the negotiations, the family said their ‘dedication and humanity have made an unforgettable impact on our lives’, and also thanked the UK government for ensuring the couple had access to medication.

‘This experience has reminded us of the power of diplomacy, empathy, and international cooperation. 

‘While the road to recovery will be long as our parents regain their health and spend time with their family, today is a day of tremendous joy and relief,’ the family added.