A 94-year-old Iranian hermit “Amou Haji”, nicknamed the “world’s dirtiest man” for not taking a shower for over half a century, died on Sunday, October 23, 2022, in Dejgah village, in the southern province of Fars as reported by Irna news agency.
In 2014, The Tehran Times reported on how villagers said that due to an emotional setback in his youth, Haji strongly believed that cleanliness would make him ill. He adamantly refused to wash and had not taken a bath with water or soap in more than 60 years. Instead, he lived in isolation in a cinder-block shack, was covered in soot, abhorred fresh food but liked eating rotten porcupines and drinking water from an old, rusty oil can. For leisure, he loved smoking a pipe filled with animal excrement.
A few months ago, some frustrated villagers took him to a bathroom and forced him to take a shower. This was how Haji finally took a bath for the first time in many decades. Ironically, he passed away some months later.
Haji spent most of his life in Dejgah village. After seeing he was sleeping in a hole in the ground for many years, a group of concerned locals built him an open brick shack to live in.
1n 2013, a short documentary film titled “The Strange Life of Amou Haji” was made about his life.
Sidney Cole writes about news happenings around the world.
