She is a well-known Danish painter. She was born in Copenhagen in 1947, but is of Austrian descent.
Since the Anfal, she has been a loyal friend of the Kurds and has constantly supported the rights of the Kurds with her art and voice. She has thousands of Kurdish friends in Kurdistan and abroad.
She has visited Kurdistan several times and opened exhibitions in cities and towns. She has written a book in Danish entitled A Journey to the Country of My Friends, which has been translated into Kurdish and published twice. The book is an important source for understanding Kurdish history, culture and psychology, as many authors have pointed out.
What attracts the reader's attention most of all is that he keeps saying that the Kurds have not stopped living and enjoying life despite all the hardships they have suffered, and that is what has kept him alive. She also wrote a number of speeches on Kurdish literature and art, which were translated by Aras Wahab. She has introduced Sherko Bekas, Rauf Begard, Sabah Ranjdar and many other writers to Danish readers.
Anita Espander is very interested in Kurdish music and knows a number of artists and singers. She painted portraits of some of them, including that of Hassan Zirak, about whom she also wrote an essay.
In the conversations with her, especially in those with Nihad Jami, it becomes apparent that she has a philosophical view of art.
With all the situations that have happened to Kurdistan, she has clearly expressed her position and has always emphasized Kurdistan's independence. She wrote about it in Danish and her writingshave been translated into Kurdish.
Anita Espander is so well known in Kurdistan that several children have been named after her in recent years because of her love for the Kurds and Kurdistan, but no place in Kurdistan has been named after her.
Sabah Ranjdar and Yousef Ezadin presented their poems to her. Many writers have written about Anita's art, including the young intellectual Soran Azad.[1]