India, June 5 -- Acclaimed Iranian-French cartoonist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, a prominent advocate for women's rights, has died at 56, the French presidency said Thursday. "Her 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," the French presidency said in a statement. President Emmanuel Macron and his wife "pay tribute to a remarkable artist who transformed an Iranian childhood into a universal fable," the statement said.

News broadcaster BFM TV and other French media reported Satrapi has "died of sadness" a little over a year after the death of her husband, Swedish film producer and actor Mattias Ripa...