The man who hasn’t washed in 50 years is a hermit called by the media “the dirtiest man in the world”. He died at the age of 94, just a few months after washing for the first time in decades.
Amou Haji refused to use soap and water for more than half a century, fearing that they would make him sick.
The Iranian, who lived in the southern province of Fars, had avoided previous attempts by villagers to wash him.
The man who had not washed for 50 years succumbed to the pressure
But, local media say, the man who hasn’t washed in 50 years finally gave in and washed a few months ago.
According to Iran’s IRNA news agency, he fell ill shortly afterwards and died on Sunday, October 23.
In a previous interview with the Tehran Times in 2014, he revealed that his favorite meal was pork and that he lived between a hole in the ground and a brick shack built by concerned neighbors in Dejgah village. reports the BBC.
He said his unusual choices were down to “emotional failures” from when he was younger.
The vices of the “dirtiest man in the world”
Years of not bathing left him with skin covered in “soot and pus”, IRNA said, while his diet consisted of rotting meat and unsanitary water drunk from an old oil can.
He also enjoyed smoking, being photographed at least once puffing on more than one cigarette at a time.
Attempts to give him a bath or clean water to drink made him sad, the news agency said.
However, it is still debated whether Amou Haji holds the record for the longest time without taking a bath. In 2009, there were reports of an Indian man who, at that time, had not washed his body and teeth for 35 years. It is not known what happened to him since then.