Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-French artist, author and filmmaker whose graphic novel Persepolis became a global symbol of resistance, identity and freedom, has died at the age of 56.
Her death was announced by the office of French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday. A medical cause of death was not immediately made public, though her family said she died of “sadness” a little more than a year after the death of her husband, Swedish producer Mattias Ripa.
Satrapi was best known for Persepolis, the groundbreaking autobiographical graphic novel that introduced millions of readers to life in Iran before, during and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Macron’s office paid tribute to Satrapi as a major cultural figure whose work crossed borders.
“Her passing marks the loss of a leading figure in French culture and a freedom-loving artist whose work carried a universal message and earned her immense international acclaim,” the French presidency said.
Born in Iran in 1969, Satrapi grew up in Tehran during a time of enormous political upheaval. She later left Iran as a teenager, moving to Austria at age 14 before eventually settling in France.
That life of exile, rebellion and survival became the heart of Persepolis.
The graphic novel follows a young girl whose life closely mirrors Satrapi’s own, tracing her childhood under the shah, the Islamic Revolution, the rise of the Islamic Republic and the Iran-Iraq War.
The book was originally published in French in the early 2000s before being released in English in 2003. It went on to sell millions of copies and became one of the most important graphic novels of the modern era.
For many readers in the West, Persepolis offered something they had rarely seen: a deeply personal, funny, painful and human look at Iranian life from the inside.
Satrapi rejected simple stereotypes about Iran and instead showed a country full of families, music, humor, fear, grief, defiance and love.
After the book’s release, Satrapi spoke bluntly about life under repression.
“Even basic human rights, they deny us,” she once said. “You don’t have the right to dance, you don’t have the right to sing, you don’t have the right to do this, you don’t have the right to do that.”
Persepolis was later adapted into an acclaimed animated film, which Satrapi co-directed. The movie won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 and was nominated for an Academy Award.
Satrapi also directed and worked on other films, including Chicken with Plums, The Voices, Radioactive and Dear Paris. Radioactive told the story of scientist Marie Curie.
Her work often centered on the same themes that defined her life: exile, dictatorship, women’s rights, cultural identity and the fight to remain free.
In 2024, Satrapi returned to comics with Woman, Life, Freedom, a collaborative work inspired by the protest movement that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini in Iranian custody.
Satrapi remained an outspoken critic of political repression in Iran. In 2025, she refused France’s Legion of Honor, saying she could not accept the award because of what she saw as France’s hypocritical stance toward Iran.
Her death has sparked tributes from political leaders, artists, readers and human rights supporters around the world.
For many, Satrapi was not just the author of a famous book. She was a woman who turned private pain into public truth, using stark black-and-white drawings to tell a story that became universal.
She showed the world that a graphic novel could be literature, history, memoir, protest and testimony all at once.