Sufism and throat-slashing

Henry K. Lee:

An Alameda County mental-health worker was arraigned Thursday on a charge of spiriting away a teenage suspect in her car after the youth allegedly slit the throat of a 75-year-old woman near the Berkeley Rose Garden.

Hamaseh Kianfar, 30, of San Rafael, was present during the March 16 attack and drove the 16-year-old girl away in her car without notifying police, authorities said.

Kianfar appeared before Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith in an Oakland courtroom. Kianfar will be back in court May 3 to enter a plea to a felony charge of being an accessory in the attack.

On Thursday, Kianfar was accompanied by her sister Sahar, 28, and their father, Ali Kianfar, 68, who is the co-founder of the International Association of Sufism. Sufism is a mystical or esoteric form of the Muslim faith that seeks a direct experience of God.

Hamaseh Kianfar, who is also active in Sufism, and her attorney, Laurel Headley of Emeryville, declined to comment after the brief hearing. Kianfar surrendered to authorities Wednesday and is free on $15,000 bail.

Kianfar is on paid administrative leave from her part-time job at the guidance center at Juvenile Hall in San Leandro, where she apparently befriended the juvenile suspect.

The 16-year-old suspect is being held at Juvenile Hall on suspicion of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. The results of a psychological test are to be submitted to a Juvenile Court judge in Oakland on Wednesday.

The slashing victim and other witnesses told police that the attacker and a female companion had been walking on the 1200 block of Euclid Avenue at about 6:30 p.m. when the teenager grabbed the victim around the throat and, without saying a word, cut her neck to the bone with what looked like a kitchen knife.

Kianfar initially told police she had witnessed the knife attack but later gave police a second statement revising that account, prosecutors said.

Witnesses had described the getaway car as a light-blue convertible. Records from the state Department of Motor Vehicles show that Kianfar owns a 2003 Mazda Miata.

Hamaseh and Sahar Kianfar translated and compiled a book titled "Sufi Stories." A posting on Amazon.com says Hamaseh Kianfar has a master's degree in psychology and is a Ph.D. candidate in the same field. Her mother, Nahid Angha, 62, co-founded the Sufi association.

The posting says she has been involved in a variety of community counseling efforts, including the Forgiveness Project at Stanford University; Squires, an inmate-intervention program at San Quentin Prison; guided imagery at Marin General Hospital; suicide prevention at the Human Needs Center; and research on autism at the department of neuroscience with the University of California.

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Berkeley blood-feast update