A Strange Captivity
Why was a Canadian couple in Afghanistan?
Nov 06, 2017 | By Candice Malcolm
Their story has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle were idealistic adventurers, a newlywed couple who loved to explore unusual destinations and travel off the beaten path. The North American pair married in 2011, and after spending a few months in Guatemala, they set off for Central Asia, trekking through Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Afghanistan was not part of their original plan, the couple’s friends and family say, but they met other travelers on their journey who raved about the country and its unique beauty, and, just like that, the carefree duo decided to explore the Wardak Province of central Afghanistan. Within weeks, Coleman and Boyle were abducted by the Haqqani network, a fierce and ruthless faction of the Taliban.
There’s plenty of suspense in this story—even after its ostensibly happy ending. Little is known about the couple’s life in captivity, aside from the occasional ransom video in which Coleman and Boyle appear increasingly frail and disoriented, pleading for the Obama administration to listen to their terrorist captors—or else. Unlike most kidnapping victims, the couple started a family and continued having children while in captivity. Caitlan Coleman, it turns out, was seven-months pregnant when the couple decided to backpack through the Taliban-controlled region of Afghanistan.
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