Amou Haji, an Iranian man dubbed the “dirtiest man in the world”, has died at the age of 94 – days after being forced to take his first shower.
He had not washed for almost 70 years. Haji believed staying dirty kept him alive for so long.
Haji lived in isolation in an open brick hut in the village of Dejgah, in the southern province of Fars.
Attempts to bathe him or provide him with clean water made him sad, but villagers did persuade Haji to take a bath a few months ago.
Having finally succumbed to pressure and washed, Haji became ill shortly afterwards and died at the age of 94.
In 2014, Haji told Tehran Times that he mainly ate dead animals and particularly liked porcupine meat. He drank 1.5 gallons of water a day, cut his hair by burning it over a fire, and smoked countless cigarettes gifted to him by villagers – as well as a pipe filled with dried animal feces as tobacco.