“World’s Dirtiest Man”: The Iranian State Media on Tuesday reported the death of an Iranian man popularly known as the “dirtiest man on earth” for not taking a bath for decades.
Amou Haji, who did not take shower for more than half a century and was single, breathed his last at the age 94 on Sunday in the village of Dejgah in the southern province of Fars, IRNA news agency reported.
Reportedly, Haji had avoided showering for years over the fear of “getting sick”. According to media reports, “for the first time a few months ago, villagers had taken him to a bathroom to wash,”
Local media claimed that Haji, who was covered in soot and lived in a cinder-block shack, hadn’t taken a bath with water or soap in more than 60 years. He hesitated to wash due to “emotional setbacks in his youth,” according to the villagers.
The Tehran Times reported in 2014 that Haji would consume roadkill, puff on an animal excrement-filled pipe, and felt that hygiene would make him sick. He was captured on camera puffing on multiple cigarettes.
Following Haji’s death, the unofficial record (World’s Dirtiest Man) could be transferred to an Indian man who had in similar manner not taken a bath for a large portion of his life.
According to the reports from Hindustan Times, in an effort to help solve “all the problems affecting the nation,” Kailash “Kalau” Singh, from a town outside of Varanasi, was reported to have skipped washing for more than 30 years.
He would choose what he dubbed a “fire bath” instead of water. The newspaper reported that Kalau “sets a campfire, smokes marijuana, and balances on a leg worshipping to Lord Shiva every evening as the locals gather.”
Accordingly, Singh also claimed that It’s just like taking a bath with water. All the bacteria and illnesses in the body are destroyed by a fire bath.
According to Iranian media, a short documentary film called “The Strange Life of Amou Haji” was produced in 2013 on his life.