
An Iranian hermit nicknamed the “world’s dirtiest man” for not taking a shower for more than half a century has reportedly died at 94, Months after succumbing to pressure and having his first bath in decades.
Irna news agency reported that “Amou Haji”, an endearing nickname for an elderly person, died on Sunday in the village of Dejgah in the southern province of Fars. local media have also said that, Amou Haji, finally succumbed to pressure and washed a few months ago.
According to Iran’s IRNA news agency, he became ill shortly afterwards and died on Sunday.
In a previous interview, given to the Tehran Times in 2014, he revealed his favourite meal was porcupine, and that he lived between a hole in the ground and a brick shack built by concerned neighbours in the village of Dejgah.
Years of not bathing had left him with skin covered in “soot and pus”, IRNA said, while his diet had consisted of rotten meat and unsanitary water drunk from an old oil can. He enjoyed smoking more than one cigarette at once.
It is possible that he might not have been the dirtiest man alive. In 2009 the Hindustan Times reported that Kailash “Kalau” Singh, from a village outside the holy city of Varanasi, had not washed for more than 30 years in an attempt to help end “all the problems confronting the nation”.