Amou Haji (; 20 August 1928 – 23 October 2022) was an Iranian man known for not bathing for more than 60 years.

Description

Amou Haji was not his real name, but a nickname given to elderly people. He lived in a shack and a hole in the ground in the village of Dejgah, Fars. Because of his fear that

soap Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...

and

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

might cause

disease A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...

, he did not bathe for over 60 years between and shortly before his death on 23 October 2022. It was claimed that he had become a hermit after a heartbreak. 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. Despite his unhygienic lifestyle, he lived until the age of 94. 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. He was photographed smoking several cigarettes at a time. He refused water, food and basic necessities offered to him. These attempts to care for him even made him sad. In 2014, he claimed that he had not washed himself for over 60 years. He believed that 'cleanliness brings on illness.'

Lifestyle

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. The latter is a treatment against infections according to

Iranian traditional medicine Iranian traditional medicine (ITM) ( fa, طب سنتی‌ ایرانی, tebbe sonnati-e irāni), also known as Persian traditional medicine, is one of the most ancient forms of traditional medicine. ITM is grounded in the concept of four humors: ...

. To manage his hair he burned off the excess with a flame.

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.

Documentary

A 2013 documentary is titled ''The Strange Life of Amou Haji''.

References

Sources