Joshua Boyle: what really happened to family held by Taliban?
Caitlan Coleman says husband abused her throughout five years in captivity

An American woman held hostage by the Taliban for five years says her husband beat and abused her throughout their ordeal.
Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, were abducted in October 2012 while backpacking through Afghanistan - a trip she now claims was organised by Boyle, whom she alleges did not inform her that they would be visiting the country until they arrived in Central Asia.
Coleman, who was pregnant at the time, eventually gave birth to three children in captivity. The family were moved between 19 hideouts in Afghanistan and Pakistan before finally being rescued in a Pakistani army raid in October 2017 and returned to Canada.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In July this year, it was reported that Coleman had returned to the US with the couple’s children, pending a Canadian court’s decision over custody of their two sons and daughter.
According to newly unsealed court documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen, Coleman claims that Boyle “became increasingly erratic and irrational” towards her and eventually “instituted corporal punishment” for perceived misdeeds.
She alleges that her husband has a long-standing interest in “extremist ideologies and in the complete subservience of women”.
Boyle was previously married to a Muslim Canadian woman whose two brothers were once detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and has “made a series of contradictory claims about their reasons for traveling to Afghanistan”, ABC News reports.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
In her affidavit, Coleman says the abuse became increasingly violent, with Boyle confining her to a shower stall for weeks at a time and once striking her “hard enough to break [her] cheekbone”. She also claims he threatened to set her on fire.
However, Boyle’s own account to the court paints a completely contradictory picture. He alleges that Coleman “assaulted him and neglected their children because of untreated mental health issues” during their five-year captivity, says the Ottawa Citizen.
For his part, Boyle says he looked after all three children single-handedly and “often went without food… to give more to his children or pregnant wife, and spent hours whittling toys and gifts for them with a spoon”.
The 34-year-old was arrested by Ottawa police in December last year and is currently on bail awaiting trial on charges including physical and sexual assault of a woman and physical assault of a child. He denies any wrongdoing.
-
Nepal chooses toddler as its new ‘living goddess’
Under the Radar Girls between two and four are typically chosen to live inside the temple as the Kumari – until puberty strikes
-
October 5 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include half-truth hucksters, Capitol lockdown, and more
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailout
Talking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Russia is ‘helping China’ prepare for an invasion of Taiwan
In the Spotlight Russia is reportedly allowing China access to military training
-
Interpol arrests hundreds in Africa-wide sextortion crackdown
IN THE SPOTLIGHT A series of stings disrupts major cybercrime operations as law enforcement estimates millions in losses from schemes designed to prey on lonely users
-
The Taliban wages war on high-speed internet
THE EXPLAINER A new push to cut nationwide access to the digital world is taking Afghanistan back to the isolationist extremes of decades past
-
China is silently expanding its influence in American cities
Under the Radar New York City and San Francisco, among others, have reportedly been targeted
-
Kabul braces for a waterless future
THE EXPLAINER A confluence of manmade and environmental factors makes the Afghan city the first modern capital to risk running out of groundwater
-
How China uses 'dark fleets' to circumvent trade sanctions
The Explainer The fleets are used to smuggle goods like oil and fish
-
One year after mass protests, why are Kenyans taking to the streets again?
today's big question More than 60 protesters died during demonstrations in 2024
-
What happens if tensions between India and Pakistan boil over?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As the two nuclear-armed neighbors rattle their sabers in the wake of a terrorist attack on the contested Kashmir region, experts worry that the worst might be yet to come