The people of Dezhga village built a hut for “Uncle Hadji”, but he preferred to live in an underground cave.
Amu Hadji, dubbed “the dirtiest man in the world” by Iranian journalists, lived in the province of Fars and steadfastly refused to wash for more than half a century, fearing that water and soap would make him fatally ill.
Uncle Hadji (literally translated as “Amu Hadji” in Farsi) was something of a local celebrity, and from time to time, journalists – including those from the capital – would come to see him to provide their readers with another amusing story. In 2014, for example, in an interview with the English-language Tehran Times newspaper, he confessed that his favorite food is hedgehog meat and that he prefers to live in an underground burrow, although he sometimes spends the night in a hut that kind-hearted neighbors built especially for him. He explained his unusual lifestyle by a series of emotional shocks in his youth.
Amu Haji enjoyed “smoking” several cigarettes at once. Amu Haji was also a big fan of tobacco, sometimes smoking several cigarettes at once, holding them in a row between his fingers. Over the years, without soap or a washcloth, the hermit’s skin became black and covered with soot, but he didn’t mind. Apparently, the rotten food he ate and the not-so-fresh water he drank from an old canister did not affect his health either. But when the villagers finally persuaded him to take a bath a few months ago, something clearly went wrong. Uncle Hadji began to deteriorate and died last Sunday. The exact cause of death is not known, but it is safe to assume that the unexpected change in hygiene habits did not benefit him.
Now, however, another question arose: Can the Iranian hermit be considered a record holder for not bathing? The thing is, back in 2009, there were reports of an Indian who had not washed or brushed his teeth for 35 years, which could easily have set a record today. However, no one can say for sure that the potential record-holder is still alive: he has long since disappeared from the media’s attention, and no new reports about him have appeared for many years.