Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, dies at 56

PARIS: Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-French writer, artist and filmmaker best known for the autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis, has died at the age of 56, according to a statement from French President Emmanuel Macron's office.

The Elysee said her death marked the loss of a major cultural figure in France and an artist associated with freedom whose work resonated far beyond national borders. In a separate statement issued by members of her family to AFP, Satrapi was said to have died of sadness a little more than a year after the death of her husband, Swedish actor, producer and screenwriter Mattias Ripa. No additional details on the cause of death were available.

Born in 1969, Satrapi spent her early years in Tehran in a left-leaning family. As a teenager, she was sent to Vienna by her parents, later returned to Iran to study fine arts, and eventually moved to France, where she continued her education in Strasbourg.

Work shaped by revolution and exile

Satrapi drew extensively on her experiences of upheaval, displacement and return in Persepolis, a black-and-white memoir about her childhood during and after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. The book gained international recognition and was later turned into an animated film that won the jury prize at Cannes and received an Academy Award nomination.

Her writing and visual art combined political resistance, dark humour and a pared-back graphic style, helping establish her as one of the most prominent graphic novelists of her generation. She later directed films including Chicken with Plums, The Voices and Radioactive, a film about scientist Marie Sklodowska Curie.

Beyond books and cinema, Satrapi also created a nine-metre wool triptych for the Paris 2024 Olympics, depicting athletes competing around the Eiffel Tower.

Public voice on Iran and exile

Satrapi was also widely known for speaking out on exile, women's rights and authoritarian rule, and often used her public standing to criticise repression in Iran.

In 2025, she declined France's highest state distinction, the Legion of Honour, citing what French media described as France's hypocritical attitude toward Iran. At the time, she wrote:

I can't continue seeing the children of Iranian oligarchs come to spend their holidays ⁠in France, ​even become naturalised, while at the same time young ​dissidents have difficulty in obtaining a tourist visa to come to see what the country of the Enlightenment and ​human rights looks like,