Marjane Satrapi, the French-Iranian author and illustrator behind the popular graphic novel series and film “Persepolis,” has died, the French presidency said Thursday.
She was 56.
Satrapi’s series recounted her early years growing up in Tehran against the backdrop of the 1979 revolution, before she was sent to Europe by her parents. She was an outspoken critic of Iran’s theocratic government and advocate for women’s rights.
“Her passing marks the loss of a leading figure in French culture and an artist deeply committed to freedom,” the French presidency said in a statement. It said Satrapi was “a great artist who transformed an Iranian childhood into a universal fable.”
The acclaimed author “died of sadness,” her family told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
The statement said the author had “died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life,” AFP reported. Further details of her death were not immediately available.
Ripa, a Swedish producer, actor and screenwriter, died in April of last year.
In a series of posts published in late April on a verified Instagram page for Satrapi, the words “For I lost the love of my life” were spelled out.
Satrapi was known as an outspoken critic of Iran’s theocratic government and her graphic novels highlighted the challenges she faced under the restrictions enforced by Iran’s Islamic leadership following the Iranian revolution, which saw the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty about a decade after the author was born.
She arrived in France in the mid-1990s, before gaining French nationality in 2006, according to AFP.
Millions of copies of “Persepolis” have been sold since the series were published in the early 2000s, propelling Satrapi to become one of the best-selling Iranian authors in the world.
She also became the first woman to be nominated for an animated feature film Oscar for the popular adaptation of her series, according to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
Tributes began to pour in Thursday morning as news of the author’s death spread.
“Marjane was a true artist and advocate for Iranian women and freedom,” British-Iranian journalist Christiane Amanpour said in a post on X. Amanpour, CNN’s chief international anchor, noted that Satrapi “disrupted literature with her wildly successful autobiographical graphic novel.”
“Great sadness upon hearing of the passing of my friend Marjane Satrapi. She was a great artist, comics creator, painter, filmmaker, but above all a passionate and committed woman,” Valérie Pécresse, president of the regional council of Île-de-France, said in a post on X on Thursday.
“From Persepolis to her biopic of Marie Curie, “Radioactive,” she established herself as a major voice in the defense of democracy and women’s rights in Iran and around the world,” she said, adding that Satrapi had been “deeply affected” by the death of her husband.
Pantheon, Satrapi’s longtime U.S. publisher, said of the author’s passing, “Her beloved graphic memoir PERSEPOLIS transformed a childhood shaped by revolution and exile into a universal story of freedom and dignity that has reached nearly 3.5 million readers in the U.S. alone. Through her work in comics, art, and film, she has helped readers and viewers find a deeper understanding of Iran, and of our shared humanity.”
