Marjane Satrapi, Author, Illustrator, and Legend Who Wrote Persepolis, Dies at 56

When Iran-born illustrator and author Marjane Satrapi published Persepolis, a series of graphic novels, in the early 2000s, she hoped to show people in other countries to see that she grew up just as they did. That despite living in a post-revolutionary Iran, she, like other kids, loved punk culture, entertainment, and the prospect of freedom. On Thursday, June 4, the French government—of whom Satrapi has been a national since 2006—revealed that Satrapi has died, age 56.

“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,” President Emmanuel Macron’s office announced in a public statement. Speaking to AFP, the office added that she “died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life”—who died in April 2025. 

Satrapi is best known for writing—and later bringing to the big screen—Persepolis, a bittersweet memoir depicting the childhood and upbringing of a fictional girl named Marjane, whose life ultimately seems to reflect her own. Similar to Satrapi, Marjane was born in Iran in 1969—and lived through the overthrowing of the Shah in 1979, the Iraq-Iran War that followed a year later, and the Islamic revolution another 10 years later. The story ultimately ends (spoiler alert) with Marjane realizing she no longer has a home in Iran, and thus moving to Paris—leaving behind a family who lovingly forbids her return, and a country from her memories that, ultimately, no longer exists. 

As a 15-year-old, Satrapi first went to Europe when her parents sent her to Austria for school. Four years later, she returned to Tehran, and shortly after that, in 1993, moved back to Europe. After getting a degree in art in France, she eventually permanently moved to Paris, where she began publishing the Persepolis series. Later in her career, she’d also write other graphic novels, such as Chicken With Plums, and also (bizarrely) directed The Voices, a Ryan Reynolds-Anna Kendrick “horror comedy” about a man who murders women because his evil, talking cat—who happens to be Scottish—encourages him to. 

Throughout her life, Satrapi regularly challenged Iran’s theocratic government, and in 2024 released another graphic novel titled Woman, Life, Freedom,about the 2022 killing of Mahsa Amini, who was 22 when she was arrested for improperly wearing her veil, and whose death brought thousands to the street in protest.

“Iran is experiencing the world’s first feminist revolution,” Satrapi said of the demonstrations. Speaking about Woman, Life, Freedom on a podcast in 2024, Satrapi added that the book operated on a “universal theme,” and that worldwide, its lessons could teach us a thing or two about feminism. 

“If anybody thinks that the world will go fine if we take 50% of the human beings in this world, and we just tell them, ‘You’re just not as efficient and you know you’re the object of my desire and your womb belongs to the society and your only means to be in the world is either to make me excited or to make me kids,’ then the world will not go very far.”