Marjane Satrapi, the French-Iranian artist, film-maker and graphic novelist whose acclaimed memoir Persepolis helped reshape international perceptions of Iran, has died at the age of 56.<\/p>\n
In a statement provided to French news agency AFP, relatives said she had \u201cdied of sadness\u201d after the death of her husband, the Swedish producer Mattias Ripa.<\/p>\n
Ripa died on 8 April last year. Later that month, a series of messages posted on Satrapi\u2019s Instagram account revealed the phrase: \u201cFor I lost the love of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tributes have been paid to Satrapi from across French politics and culture following news of her death. President Emmanuel Macron said Satrapi was \u201ca great artist who turned her Iranian childhood into a universal tale,\u201d adding: \u201cWith her childlike perspective, her irony, her tenderness, her inner demons, the author created a moving world with which readers identified.\u201d<\/p>\n
Writing on X, Ya\u00ebl Braun-Pivet, president of the French National Assembly, said: \u201cMarjane Satrapi had turned her work into an act of freedom. With Persepolis, she had given a face and a voice to the Iranian revolution, proudly carrying the fight for women\u2019s freedom and dignity. France loses an immense artist. To her family, to her loved ones, I offer my most sincere thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran, near the Caspian Sea, Satrapi was raised in Tehran by her father, an engineer, and her mother, a dress designer. As a teenager, she left Iran after her parents sent her to Europe to continue her education, hoping to spare her from the restrictions imposed under the Islamic Republic. She eventually settled in France, arriving in 1994 and later becoming a French citizen in 2006.<\/p>\n
Throughout her life, Satrapi was a vocal opponent of Iran\u2019s clerical establishment.<\/p>\n
In 2000 she published Persepolis, a comic book memoir that became an international publishing phenomenon. It told the story of a rebellious and outspoken young girl navigating the upheaval in Iran after the shah is overthrown in 1979 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic. The story follows the protagonist\u2019s attempts to understand the country\u2019s violence and ideological control before she is sent alone to Europe at the age of 14.<\/p>\n
Satrapi told the Guardian in 2024<\/a> that Persepolis was about making western readers reflect on the humanity of Iranian people, that, \u201cOh, they\u2019re actually human beings like us\u201d.<\/p>\n The memoir sold millions of copies, established Satrapi as one of the most widely read Iranian authors in the world, and its success challenged many western assumptions about Iranian society and culture.<\/p>\n An image from the 2007 film version of Persepolis. Photograph: 2 4 7 Films\/Kobal\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Satrapi has described how she initially had little expectation that Persepolis would reach publication. At the time, she was still an arts student in Strasbourg and had relatively limited professional experience in comics. \u201cWith Persepolis, I didn\u2019t even think I\u2019d find a publisher,\u201d she told El Pa\u00eds<\/a> in 2020. \u201cI thought I\u2019d make 50 photocopies for my friends to read.\u201d<\/p>\n Satrapi later co-directed the animated film adaptation of Persepolis, which became an international hit and earned her a place in Oscar history as the first woman nominated for the Academy award for best animated feature.<\/p>\n She has said that the purpose of her comic books was to reassure young Iranians that they were being heard and supported by the outside world. \u201cIf they kill you and the whole world doesn\u2019t care, how is that? This is the whole thing I\u2019m asking: just recognise this.\u201d<\/p>\n