‘Persepolis’ author Marjane Satrapi dies ‘of sadness’ aged 56

Franco-Iranian author and film director Marjane Satrapi, renowned for her graphic novel and film Persepolis, has died aged 56, a year after the passing of “the love of her life”, a member of her close circle said on Thursday.“Marjane Satrapi died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life,” they said in a statement.Born in 1969 in Rasht in northern Iran, Satrapi arrived in France in 1994 and gained French nationality in 2006.An outspoken critic of Iran’s theocratic government, Satrapi’s Persepolis recounts her early life in Tehran, struggling with restrictions imposed by Iran’s Islamic leadership after the 1979 revolution, before her parents sent her to Europe and she began a life in exile.French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Satrapi, saying she was “a great artist who turned her Iranian childhood into a universal tale”.The films she directed included a 2007 adaptation of the graphic novel of Persepolis – co-directed by Vincent Paronnaud – which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar.“Even if this is a universal film, I want to dedicate this prize to all Iranians,” Satrapi said at the time.Speaking on Thursday, Cannes festival supremo Thierry Fremaux said: “Marjane was an extraordinary artist and a charming woman who embodied the joy of creation and the sorrow of exile and painful memories. We mourn her this morning.”She was a vocal supporter of the protests that erupted in the Islamic Republic after the 2022 death of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini while in custody for allegedly breaching the dress code for women.She curated a collection of graphic stories on the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement in her latest book that came out in English in 2024, and was among those at a protest in Paris that same year to mark two years since Amini’s death.Further Reading“It’s very important that this regime disappears,” she said of the Islamic Republic, but she stressed it could not happen overnight.“I think it’s important to remain hopeful.”The foundation of Narges Mohammadi, the jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner, praised Satrapi as “a fearless voice for feminism, human rights, and freedom”.