Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-born graphic novelist, filmmaker and critic of Tehran's clerical regime whose graphic novel Persepolis was adapted into an Oscar-winning film, has died of ‘sadness’ at age 56, her family shared in a statement.
The statement said that Satrapi died of “grief” a little over a year after the death of her husband, Swedish producer, actor and screenwriter Mattias Ripa, whom they called "the love of her life."
Ripa died on April 8, 2025.
In the months preceding her death, a series of posts on Satrapi's Instagram account appeared to reflect her grief, spelling out the message: "For I Lost the love of my life.”
Born in Rasht, Iran, in 1969 and raised in Tehran, Satrapi’s childhood was shaped by the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the social and political restrictions that followed under the Islamic Republic. Sent to Europe by her parents as a teenager, she later settled in France, arriving in 1994 and becoming a French citizen in 2006.
Satrapi is best-known for her monochrome autobiographical comic book and film Persepolis, a coming-of-age tale set against the Islamic Revolution in her native Iran.
Persepolis won the Film Critics Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival in 2007 and the César Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2008, in addition to being nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 2008 Oscars.
The film, which detailed her life in Tehran as the daughter of intellectual Marxists, is a reminder that Iranians are like everyone else, Satrapi told The Associated Press in a 2007 interview in Cannes.
"What we wanted to say is, if these people scare you, look closer: They have parents, they have lovers, they have hope, they have stories," she said.
Iranian authorities protested the movie's inclusion at Cannes, sending a letter to the French Embassy in Tehran.
Beyond her literary achievements, Satrapi was known for her criticism of Iran's theocratic government and her advocacy for freedom of expression, women's rights and democratic values. She remained a prominent voice for Iranian dissidents and regularly used her public platform to challenge authoritarianism.
The French Academy of Fine Arts, of which she was a member, expressed its deep sadness in a social media statement, paying tribute to "a passionate advocate for cinema and film education" who earlier this year created a foundation to help international students come to Paris to study film.
"Supporting the women's revolution in Iran cannot be reduced to photos or speeches," she wrote in a January 2025 letter to French authorities. "When people are fighting for democracy, we should support them."
Satrapi in 2023 coordinated the book Femme, vie, liberté ("Woman, Life, Freedom") together with a group of artists and academics to illustrate the revolts that occurred in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 at the hands of the "morality police."
The book denounced the repression and lack of human rights that Iranian society, especially women, suffers at the hands of the Iranian regime, the foundation under the French Academy of Fine Arts said.