A List of Twitter Users Who Tweet About #Iran and are Not Assholes [Part 2]

The first part of this list was published a week ago  here.

This list is biased. The names in this list belong to people who have proven they are not assholes when tweeting about Iran. If your name is not in this list, it is not necessarily because you are an asshole -- it could just be because I do not know you.  The order of names in this list does not mean anything. I try to add a brief description for each name in this list. The third part of this list will be published as soon as I compile a list of non-Asshole #Iran Tweeps. I plan to publish a list of Asshole #Iran Tweeps for the Next week, if you have any suggestion for that list, contact me. 

If you have any suggestion about this post, please tweet them at @IranLGBT or comment in here. 

@SaeedK:  Not many Iranian journalist can claim they've interviewed Paul Auster -- an American Author who is very famous in Iran unlike his home country, USA, as far as I can say.  A 23-year-old Saeed Kamali Dehghan interviewed Auster for the weekly magazine Shahrvand Emrooz  5 years ago.  Saeed is now a journalist at the Guardian covering news of Iran.  He sometimes writes for the Comment is Free section of the Guardian. In July, 2012, he wrote a comment piece, aptly, and justly titled: Sanctions on Iran punish its people, not its leaders, which voiced the many concerns, fears and angers of many Iranians who oppose Ayatollahs but are not willing to sign off on the massacre of millions of Iranian by Western sanctions.  His brilliance  is not all I like about him, he is also an openly gay man. Considering he is Iranian, and worked in Iran for years,  this is big deal -- very big deal. Not many openly gay Iranians are out there, let alone a prominent gay journalist.  I guess he left Iran permanently following the bloody days of June, 2009, when the rigged presidential election took place and many journalists got arrested. I am glad he is not in Evin Prison, but in London. He mostly tweets news of Iran.  

@CDA: "Collin Anderson, a 26-year-old liberation-technology researcher from North Dakota who specializes in Iran," that's what The New York Times wrote in 2011.  He tweets about Internet censorship in Iran, sanctions on Iran, ... .  Apparently he knows Farsi for he does tweet in Farsi too. A good source. 

@RezaAsadi: Reza Asadi is a producer for the BBC. I don't know him. His tweets are surely a good source for #Iran. Moreover, he did tweet a blog post of mine which documented the murderous musings of Blake Hounshell on Iran. Hounshell is managing editor at Foreign Policy magazine, and a gate-keeper of Foreign News/commentary in US Media, consequently, not many Iranian journalists tweeted or re-tweeted my blog post out of either sheer disinterest in Iran news or considerations for Mr.Hounshell's image, but Reza Asadi did. So, for that, I gotta tell you, he does seem like an independent minded journalist, and independent journalists are those I trust!
  
@Jrezaian: Jason Rezaian is the Tehran correspondent for the Washington Post. He is apparently from Northern California. My impression is he is from an Iranian father and an American Mother. [Correct me anyone who knows better,please, if I am wrong.] His father had a Persian Rug store in California, so he proudly calls himself son of a Rug man. He is funny. His tweets from Iran and about Iran are always interesting. He is a good source indeed. More significantly foolish #Iran tweeps call him an Agent for the Islamic Regime in Iran, which could be funny if these people were not serious!  

@Nima: Nima Akbapour is "Presenter and Producer" for BBC Persian. He belongs to the first name twitter handler royal club, as if that was not enough, he has about 15,000 followers mostly Iranians. He tweets mostly in Farsi sometimes in English too, usually cool stuff. He is an excellent source for those interested in knowing what's going on in the Iranian blog-sphere. 

@yjtorbati: Yeganeh June Torbati has a long name, but thankfully it is not her twitter handler! She is a reporter for Reuters, based in Dubai covering news of Iran -- for a fuck-up Reuters did in Iran re: Iranian Ninjas, Reuters has been banned from working in Iran unfortunately. She is 2nd generation Iranian born in Oklahoma, USA as far as I know. She used to follow me till I made the mistake of talking to her about Arab Kings in the Persian Gulf, and she did not like my language and unfollowed me. All in all, she is a good source for reliable news about Iran. Tidbit: I once told her names of all the children of Boz Boz Ghandi: Shangool, Manbgool and Hab'be Angoor, which she thanked me afterwards. 

@SeyyedReza: His name is Alex Shams, a co-editor of the excellent @AjamMC blog, but because his twitter account is private now, I am not going to say anything about him. 

@parissasaranj: Parisa Saranj is a columnist for Aslan Media. She tweets pics of Isfahan, her hometown and a beautiful major city of Iran. When she is not tweeting pics of Isfahan, she tweets news and funny stuff about Iran. She used to tweet more till a few months ago. Hopefully she'll get back to tweeting more soon! 

@Lrozen: Laura Rozen is a reporter currently at @AlMonitor. She has a scary twitter profile pic, but seems like a nice person! Her tweets about Iran are mostly news, opinion about the nuclear negotiations, and politics of the Ahmadinejad government. A good source. 

@OurmaninIran: Our man in Iran is Western, probably British  journalist in Iran. I don't know him. He tweets good links about Iran. He does know the domestic politics of Iran as evident by his tweets speculating about the next presidential election in Iran. A good source! 

@SanazRaji: Sanaz Raji is a scholar at "University of Leeds exploring gender, sexuality, and satire in relation to social media in the Iranian diaspora." She does not tweet much, but when she does it is usually something interesting about Iran. 

@pedestrian:  Her name on twitter is Sidewalk Lyrics, she is obviously an anonymous tweep. I got to know about her from a piece that was published on Tehran Bureau from her blog. I can't find that piece now, but you should check her blog for some good stuff to read. Unfortunately, her activity on twitter and blog abruptly stopped on 30, November, 2012. I know she is Iranian, living or Studying in US, but for some family problem -- seemed she lost a dear relative in Tehran-- she went back to Iran a few months ago. She used to tweet from Iran, but then it all stopped late November. I hope she be all right wherever she is, and gets back to Tweeting or blogging, for she is excellent.