On this date in 1969, Marjane Satrapi — graphic novel author and filmmaker best known for “Persepolis” — was born in Rasht, Iran, and grew up in Tehran. She had aristocratic lineage. Her father was an engineer and her mother designed dresses.
Her parents were upper-class Marxist intellectuals fervently opposed to the autocratic Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Her childhood was marred with various horrors, first emanating from the monarchy and, after 1979, the newly installed Islamist regime. Her paternal uncle was executed for political reasons.
Satrapi bridled against the new restrictions on dress and behavior. When she was 14, she hit a school principal who had tried to confiscate her jewelry, and her parents, worried for her safety, sent her to live with an Iranian family in Austria. She stayed there for four years and after a stint back in Iran (and a failed marriage at age 21), she emigrated to France, where she lived the rest of her life.
Satrapi’s most acclaimed work is the “Persepolis” graphic novel series (four volumes in French, two in English), which semihumorously depicts the trials of growing up in Iran and the challenges of her relocation to Europe. The New York Times and The Guardian included it on their lists of the 100 best books of the 21st century, and it has sold millions of copies. Satrapi herself co-directed the 2007 eponymous film, which was nominated for an Oscar and won an award at the Cannes Film Festival.
“More than 25 years after the comic book was printed, ‘Persepolis’ remains one of the few works capable of making Iran decipherable without excusing it, critical without caricaturing it, and human without idealizing it,” Université Libre de Bruxelles Professor Emeritus Firouzeh Nahavandi has written. “This is undoubtedly what explains its enduring appeal.”
Satrapi also directed a number of live-action movies, including a Madame Curie biopic with Rosamund Pike in the lead role. She never let up on her activism in support of rights in her native Iran. She drew inspiration from the 2022 feminist Iranian protests to help create an anthology of graphic work titled “Woman, Life, Freedom” in honor of the demonstrators’ slogan.
“The crazy people are not based in one country,” Satrapi said in a 2006 interview. “George Bush talks about the Axis of Evil. What’s the difference between that and the mullahs talking about the Great Satan? They say, ‘read the Koran.’ The other one says, ‘read the Bible.’ The mullah says he’s the best friend of God, and George Bush does, too. … But the mullah is a religious man. He’s supposed to talk like that. Bush is the president of the world’s leading secular democracy. This is not normal.” (The Believer, Aug. 1, 2006)
She was married to Swedish actor, screenwriter and producer Mattias Ripa for 29 years, and his cancer death in 2025 apparently also shortened her life at age 56, according to several accounts. “Marjane Satrapi died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life,” said a statement distributed by Agence France-Presse that didn’t specify details or location.
“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,” said a statement from the office of the president of France. Tributes came in from all over the world, including from the imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize-winner Narges Mohammadi and writer Margaret Atwood. (D. 2026)
PHOTO: Satrapi at the 73rd New York Film Critics Circle Awards in 2008; Shutterstock/Everett Collection
