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PARIS<\/strong> \u2013 Acclaimed Iranian-French cartoonist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, a prominent advocate for women’s rights and author of \u201cPersepolis,\u201d has died at 56, the French presidency said Thursday. <\/p>\n \u201cHer passing marks the loss of a leading figure of French culture and an artist devoted to freedom, whose work carried a universal message and earned her immense international acclaim,\u201d the French presidency said in a statement. <\/p>\n President Emmanuel Macron and his wife \u201cpay tribute to a remarkable artist who transformed an Iranian childhood into a universal fable,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n News broadcaster BFM TV and other French media reported Satrapi has \u201cdied of sadness\u201d a little over a year after the death of her husband, Swedish film producer and actor Mattias Ripa, according to a statement from people close to the artist.<\/p>\n The French Academy of Fine Arts, of which she was a member, expressed its deep sadness in a social media statement, paying tribute to \u201ca passionate advocate for cinema and film education\u201d who earlier this year created a foundation to help international students come to Paris to study film.<\/p>\n Satrapi is best-known for her monochrome autobiographical comic book and film \u201cPersepolis,\u201d a coming-of-age tale set against the Islamic Revolution in her native Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cPersepolis\u201d won the Film Critics Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival in 2007 and the C\u00e9sar Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2008, in addition to being nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 2008 Oscars.<\/p>\n The film, which details her life in Tehran as the willful daughter of intellectual Marxists, is a reminder that Iranians are just like everyone else, Satrapi told The Associated Press in a 2007 interview in Cannes. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat we wanted to say is, if these people scare you, look closer: They have parents, they have lovers, they have hope, they have stories,” she said.<\/p>\n Iranian authorities at the time protested the movie\u2019s inclusion at Cannes, sending a letter to the French Embassy in Tehran. <\/p>\n Satrapi was born on Nov. 22, 1969, in Rasht, Iran, but her parents sent her to Vienna, Austria, in 1983 to finish her studies because of the extremism in their country following the 1979 Revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power.<\/p>\n But Satrapi, who found Austria hostile and who desperately missed her parents, returned to Iran in 1989 to attend Tehran University, where she earned a degree in visual communications.<\/p>\n By the time she graduated, Satrapi decided she finally was ready to leave Iran and accept the opportunities her parents had been so desperate to give her a decade before. In 1994 she moved to France. She studied in Strasbourg and later moved to Paris.<\/p>\n Her graphic novels also include \u201cBroderies\u201d (\u201cEmbroideries\u201d) and \u201cPoulet aux prunes\u201d (\u201cChicken with plums\u201d), which also was adapted into a film. As a filmmaker, she has directed several works including \u201cLa Bande des Jotas\u201d (\u201cThe Gang of Jotas\u201d) and \u201cRadioactive\u201d (\u201cMadame Curie\u201d)<\/a>, a biography about the Polish physicist Marie Curie.<\/p>\n Satrapi in 2023 coordinated the book \u201cFemme, vie, libert\u00e9\u201d (\u201cWoman, Life, Freedom\u201d) together with a group of artists and academics to illustrate the revolts that occurred in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022<\/a> at the hands of the so-called \u201cmorality police.\u201d The work denounces the repression and lack of human rights that Iranian society, especially women, suffers at the hands of the Iranian regime, the foundation said.<\/p>\n Satrapi was elected member of the French Academy of Fine Arts in 2024. She also was offered France’s highest award, the Legion of Honor, that same year but declined it, arguing France was not doing enough to support Iranian people fighting for democracy. <\/p>\n \u201cSupporting the women\u2019s revolution in Iran cannot be reduced to photos or speeches,\u201d she wrote in a January 2025 letter to French authorities. \u201cWhen people are fighting for democracy, we should support them.\u201d<\/p>\n