To think there's something odd about the couple abducted by the talibans story

[Herculesfan]

At a very base level she was heavily pregnant and backpacking through taliban occupied Afghanistan?

There is something strange with the story.
But with regards to choosing to have children in captivity - I doubt that choice would really come into it, unfortunately.

Sure Canadian social care will be all over them when they get back in readiness for the next flight of fancy - i hope they are at least a prohibited steps type order and psych assessment

To be fair with regard to refusing to letting his son go to the US, if his was born in captivity he would be at most four so shouldn't really get a say in these things.

Don't they usually publicise when they have hostages? Not much point otherwise. Jusy means looking after people for no reason. Although I freely admit this could have been shouted from the rooftops in Canada and I wouldn't have known.

YADNBU
Stinks

Stinks to high heaven.

It is odd

Is she a converted muslim, or was she just wearing the head scarf because she had to for the photo?

Very odd. I've read the piece on the BBC website and I simply don't understand it. What were they doing there? Why take your children there? If you were being held captive what are you doing having more sex and making more babies. If I was in that situation having sex would be the last thing on my mind. in fairness though a cup of tea or Homes Under the Hammer can distract me from sex
It all seems very odd. I get the feeling that he is very controlling. why would you be having sex with your wife if she is suffering repeated rapes? Why would you take her there?
I think that he was going there for 'missionary' work and is highly controlling and mentally ill. She was completely under his influence.

There's something really not quite right about it.

I bet that he's being very, very closely watched.

There are rabbits darting about all over the place . . .

The way he kept saying the group that held them had been stupid struck me as an incredibly odd choice of word - in this situation you would expect him to describe their captors as evil, barbaric, terrifying but not stupid?
I wonder if they went out there to join the Taliban or other group & then had a disagreement with someone and ended up as hostages.
I don’t believe for a minute that their reasons for being there are truly innocent

Hiding
She was heavily pregnant. They didn’t take any children with them.

It does seem a very odd ( and awful) story. His parents are reported as saying they were very angry at him for 'taking' his pregnant wife hiking through Afghanistan - like she was a piece of luggage who had no say in the matter. What was she thinking. Now after 5 years they have turned up with 3 children, and claim a fourth little girl was killed. 4 babies in 5 years??? While living in what he describes as a hole in the ground? And his wife being raped by their captors. Under those circumstances you would imagine they would do anything to avoid a pregnancy, never mind one every year. I hope the children get well looked after now, and protected from any further insane decisions from their parents.

Just read this on the bbc website and came along to see if anyone else found it deeply weird and suspicious.
Having sex with your wife who appears to have been repeatedly raped. Horrible.
Managing to fit in the birth of 4 children in five years of captivity wtf!
The parents aren't impressed are they.

Such an odd choice of words, when he repeatedly calls his ‘captors’ stupid for kidnapping them and allegedly killing their baby daughter. That to me spells more indignation than sorrow or justified anger. My suspicions are that his connection to al Qaeda via his first marriage and link to the Khadr family is rather relevant and perhaps he expected to be welcomed with open arms. ‘Stupid’ to me sounds like an outraged pampered and rather arrogant manchild who endangered his wife and unborn child on some glory seeking mission. I suspect he expected to be treated as some hero and completely misread the tribal culture of Afghanistan that means there isn’t necessarily some united Taliban front but different factions with massive self-interest and local protection rackets. I also believe he fully intended to join the Taliban in some form and found the reality rather different. Anyway, I’m also not entirely convinced that their stay there was as mistreated prisoners. Perhaps it was rather similar to those that run to join the Islamic State and then found the reality far less comfortable but are then stuck and prevented from leaving as deserters. Those videos of them allegedly held as captives could be merely part of the huge media propaganda apparatus of the Taliban trying to get money, weapons and exchange of prisoners with the family being complicit actors. They are certainly speaking rather ‘uncensored’ and appear to be rather aware of current affairs that suggest a lot more access to media etc despite having been ‘kept captive’ for years! Sadly, Afghanistan has a terrible record for infant mortality and we don’t know the circumstances surrounding the first child. But any man who travels with a heavily pregnant partner to a country with such poor facilities to deliver children safely, has to shoulder some of the responsibility when things go badly wrong. Let’s just hope they aren’t planning a family trip to Korea next!

Perhaps it was rather similar to those that run to join the Islamic State and then found the reality far less comfortable but are then stuck and prevented from leaving as deserters.

My thoughts too.

With regards to having kids in captivity besides sex for comfort, perhaps his wife was less likely to be raped if she was pregnant? So better to be permanently knocked up?

Not even the most dedicated aid worker would take his pregnant wife to a war torn country

I beg to differ. John Schrader, the BIL of Anna Duggar took his wife and 3 children to malaria/cholera stricken Zambia to be a missionary. They went on to have 4 more children and live in a pop up camper van. They have no health care nor have the children received schooling. There are some very bizarre people on this earth.

The reporting of the story is equally bizarre, though. Why is nobody in the media saying how unlikely the whole story is?

Sara107 I thought that too, the way the woman's father spoke was as if she had no say in the matter. That alone was wierd.

Whoever was asking, was he Amish, no but he did attend Mennonite school and was a pacifist that had a strong calling to do humanitarian work. He also had a fascination with terrorism. According to USA today Caitlin Coleman also had a deep desire to ‘good works’ that was possibly connected to her devout Catholicism. They embarked on a Central Asian ‘road trip’ with the intention of helping aid groups along the way. Why on earth they decided to go when she was heavily pregnant, who knows. Very strange story.

I feel so sorry for the poor woman, she looked in an absolutely desperately depressed or opressed state in the news clips and I wanted to hug her and escort her away. When they have just got back from this horrific 5-year-long situation, why is he giving these interviews so soon instead of debriefing and recovering? I also wondered how on board she is with having him tell the world the stuff he has. And everyone, not just him but the parents, are talking about her as if she's had no choice in anything and is just a piece of baggage.

I obviously don't know anything about him but he's setting all my alarm bells shrieking, just in how he comes across.

She was heavily pregnant. They didn’t take any children with them.

He/they were risking the life of the unborn child, and the mother's life, if complications had arisen.

Why is nobody in the media saying how unlikely the whole story is?

I'd guess either fear of lawsuits, or someone has dropped a hint that there are security issues and investigations involved. Newspapers do get warned off publishing information that could damage ongoing criminal investigations. I wouldn't be surprised if there was something similar here.

And I actually looked for the thread as I knew MNers would all be saying the same kind of thing!

Horrific stuff whatever the truth
I can imagine though that it's better to be pregnant and thus not able to get pregnant through rape and presumably less chance of being raped, though, also perhaps more lenience in living conditions if with babies/small children

Something is off somewhere.

Dangerous situation, I wouldn't start a guess at this one yet.