World’s dirtiest man’ dies in Iran at 94 a few months after first wash
‘Amou Haji’, who did not bathe for half a century, reportedly ate roadkill and smoked pipe filled with animal excrement
Oliver Holmes
An Iranian hermit nicknamed the “world’s dirtiest man” for not taking a shower for more than half a century has died at the healthy old age of 94, state media has reported.
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.
Haji, covered in soot and living in a cinder-block shack, was reported by local media not to have bathed with water or soap in more than 60 years. Villagers said he had experienced “emotional setbacks in his youth” that led him to refuse to wash.
In 2014, the Tehran Times reported that Haji would eat roadkill, smoke a pipe filled with animal excrement, and believed that cleanliness would make him ill. Photos showed him smoking multiple cigarettes at once.
But a few months ago, villagers had persuaded him to wash for the first time, Irna reported.
After Haji’s death, the unofficial record could go to an Indian man who also had not bathed for much of his life.
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”.
He would reject water in favour of what he called a “fire bath”. “Every evening as villagers gather, Kalau … lights a bonfire, smokes marijuana and stands on a leg praying to Lord Shiva,” the paper said.
One pesin wey no dey follow socialize wit pipo and media dey call “di world dirtiest man” don die at di age of 94, just months afta dem wash am for di first time in decades.
Amou Haji bin don refuse to use soap and water for more dan 50 years.
E bin dey fear say e fit make am sick.
Di Iranian, wey dey live for di southern province of Fars, don avoid previous attempts by villagers to clean am.
But, local media say, Haji finally agree to di pressure and baff just few months ago.
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According to Iran IRNA news agency, im fall sick shortly afta dat time and die on Sunday.
For one previous interview, wey im do wit Tehran Times for 2014, im reveal say im favourite meal na porcupine, and say im dey live between one hole for ground and one brick shack wey some concerned neighbours for di village build for am.
Im tell di outlet dat time say e take di decision sake of “emotional setbacks” wen im dey younger.
Years of not bathing make im skin dey covered in “soot and pus”, IRNA tok, am wetin im dey chop na rotten meat and unclean water drunk from one old oil can.
TEHRAN: An Iranian man nicknamed the “dirtiest man in the world” for not taking a shower for decades has died at the age of 94, state media reported on Tuesday.
Amou Hajji, who did not wash for more than half a century, died on Sunday in the village of Dejgah in the southern province of Fars, IRNA news agency reported.
Hajji lived in isolation in an open brick hut and had faced some “emotional setbacks in his youth,” according to the media outlet.
Hajji had avoided showering over fears of “getting sick,” but “for the first time a few months ago, villagers had taken him to a bathroom to wash,” before falling ill and dying shortly afterward, IRNA reported.
In a 2014 interview with the Tehran Times, he revealed that he mostly ate dead animals and drank 1.5 liters of water every day. He also said he trimmed his hair with a fire, and smoked innumerable cigarettes given to him by locals as well as a pipe filled with dried animal excrement as tobacco.
A short documentary film titled “The Strange Life of Amou Hajji” was made about his life in 2013, according to Iranian media outlets.
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When British author Rudyard Kipling visited Chicago in 1889, he described a city captivated by technology and blinded by greed. He described a rushed and crowded city, a “huge wilderness” with “scores of miles of these terrible streets” and their “hundred thousand of these terrible people.” “The show impressed me with a great horror,” he wrote. “There was no color in the street and no beauty—only a maze of wire ropes overhead and dirty stone flagging under foot.” He took a cab “and the cabman said that these things were the proof of progress.” Kipling visited a “gilded and mirrored” hotel “crammed with people talking about money, and spitting about everywhere.
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