‘World’s dirtiest man’ dies shortly after taking first bath in over 60 years

Amou Haji, an Iranian recluse given the title “world’s dirtiest man,” died at age 94 shortly after taking his first bath in over 60 years.

“Uncle Haji’s” death on Sunday, in the village of Dejgah in the southern province of Fars, was reported by the Islamic Republic News Agency. Aside from having not taken a bath in over 60 years, other practices, such as smoking a pipe filled with animal excrement and eating rotten roadkill, helped secure Haji’s coveted title, according to the BBC. He finally succumbed to pressure a few months ago to finally bathe but got sick and perished soon after.

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In an interview with the Tehran Times in 2014, he said his refusal to bathe was due to childhood “emotional setbacks” and that attempts to make him bathe or offers of clean water made him sad, IRNA reported. He believed being clean harmed your health, the Iranian Fars News Agency reported, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Pictures of the man show his hands, arms, feet, legs, and face blackened from soot and dirt.

Despite his lack of hygiene, Haji was treated with kindness by the local villagers, who even built him a four-walled cinder block shack for shelter. However, he apparently usually slept in a shallow hole outside the structure. His nickname, “Amou Haji,” was given as a term of endearment by the locals.

There was some friction, however. A few years back, a group of youths attempted to bring him in a car to a river to bathe, resulting in him desperately exiting the car and fleeing.

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His favorite meal was rotten porcupine meat, according to the Telegraph, and he drank unsanitary water collected in a rusty pail, taken from puddles. Amazingly, despite his bad hygiene, a team of doctors from Tehran reported that he was in good health the last time he was checked.