Amou Haji

Amou Haji (lit. 'Uncle Haji'; 20 August 1928 – 23 October 2022) was an Iranian man known for not bathing for more than 60[1][2] years.[3][4]

Amou Haji
Amou Haji smoking, pre-2014
Born20 August 1928
Fars province, Persia
Died23 October 2022(2022-10-23) (aged 94)
Dezh Gah Rural District, Fars province, Iran
Known forFilth and fear of soap and water

Description

Amou Haji was not his real name, but a nickname given to elderly people.[5] He lived in a shack and a hole in the ground in the village of Dejgah, Fars. Because of his fear that soap and water might cause disease, he did not bathe for over 60 years between c. 1957-62 and shortly before his death on 23 October 2022.[4] It was claimed that he had become a hermit after a heartbreak.[5] He was celibate, ate meat from dead animals he found, drank water from puddles, smoked a pipe that had animal excrement on it and lived in a hole he had built himself.[5] Despite his unhygienic lifestyle, he lived until the age of 94.[6] He died shortly after washing for the first time in 60 years, having been persuaded by the inhabitants of Dejgah, in the southern province of Fars, to do so.[6] He was photographed smoking several cigarettes at a time. He refused water, food and basic necessities offered to him.[7] These attempts to care for him even made him sad.[4]

In 2014, he claimed that he had not washed himself for over 60 years.[8] He believed that 'cleanliness brings on illness.'[1][2]

Lifestyle

Hammond (2019) describes Haji as having a "face and beard caked in mustard brown earth" and that he "blends in" to the "barren landscape of southern Iran" and "that when he sits still he resembles a rock." His diet consisted of rotten porcupine carcasses and he smoked animal dung in his pipe.[2][1] The latter is a treatment against infections according to Iranian traditional medicine.

To manage his hair he burned off the excess with a flame.[1][2]

Death

A few months before his death, the villagers of his village persuaded him to take a bath – fearing he would get sick if he ever used "soap and water," according to Iran's government-funded IRNA news agency, via AFP. In the report, Haji cited "emotional setbacks in his youth" as a primary reason for not bathing. After taking his first bath in 60 years, Haji fell ill and died a few months after bathing.[9][10][11]

Documentary

A 2013 documentary is titled The Strange Life of Amou Haji.[12]

See also
  • Dirty Dick - a London merchant who refused to wash after his fiancée died on their wedding day

References
  1. Hammond 2019.
  2. Bathroom Readers' Institute 2015, p. 222.
  3. James 2022.
  4. BBC 2022.
  5. La Stampa 2022.
  6. Lombardo 2022.
  7. TG24 2022.
  8. Theobald 2015.
  9. "'World's dirtiest man' dies in Iran at 94 a few months after first wash". the Guardian. 25 October 2022.
  10. Gleeson, Scott. "'World's Dirtiest Man' dies at 94, reportedly 'not long after' his first bath in 60 years". USA TODAY.
  11. ""World's dirtiest man" dies in Iran at 94". www.cbsnews.com.
  12. SCMP 2022.

Sources
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