Marjane Satrapi was born in Rasht, Iran, on November 22, 1969, into a Tehran family close to communist ideals. As a child, she experienced the Islamic Revolution and the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War, witnessing the progressive restriction of individual freedoms, especially for women.

In 1983, at the age of 14, her parents sent her to Vienna to distance her from the increasingly oppressive regime. After a difficult adolescence, including a period of homelessness, she returned to Iran to study at university, where she married a man named Reza; the marriage soon ended in divorce. In 1994, at the age of 25, she moved permanently to France, settling in Paris.

It was there that, thanks to her encounter with cartoonist David B., she launched the career that would make her famous worldwide: Persepolis, an autobiographical graphic novel published in four volumes between 2000 and 2003, recounts her childhood in Iran and adolescence in Europe. The work earned her international acclaim and several awards, including the Fauve d’Or at Angoulême in 2005 for Chicken with Plums.

In 2007, she brought Persepolis to the big screen alongside Vincent Paronnaud, in an animated film that won awards at Cannes and the César Awards, featuring the voices of Chiara Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve. In 2011, the two also directed the live-action adaptation of Chicken with Plums. Satrapi also directed The Voices (2014) and Radioactive (2019), dedicated to Marie Curie, and wrote an illustrated column for the New York Times for many years.

Throughout her career, she received important honors, including the Princesa de Asturias Award in 2024; that same year, she was awarded the French Legion of Honor, which she declined in January 2025, criticizing what she called France’s hypocrisy toward Iran.

Marjane Satrapi passed away in Paris on June 4, 2026, at the age of 56, about a year after the death of her husband Mattias Ripa. She is buried in Père-Lachaise Cemetery.

Photo: “Copyright: Franck Courtes/Vu pour le Monde”