Source: Youtube

The British Broadcasting Corporation aired a clip titled The Real Housewives of ISIS this week, stirring a social media storm of epic proportions.

In it, the wives of radical fighters take selfies, discuss Instagram hashtags, show off their "fashionable" suicide vests and plan outfits for beheading sessions.

As part of the comedy show Revolting, The Real Housewives of ISIS parodies the popular Real Housewives reality television series. It features four British women who have left their homes to become 'jihadi brides' and join the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS, also known as Daesh - an acronym for the Arabic phrase al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham).

Since its release on BBC 2's Facebook page on Wednesday, the video has garnered 13 million views at the time of writing and has been shared more than 263,000 times. 

"It's only three days to the beheading, and I've got no idea what I'm going to wear", says a character named Afsana in the opening scene.

Another scene features Zaynab enthusiastically modelling her new suicide vest.

The third character, Hadiya, expresses her excitement about moving to the Islamic State. "It's everything those guys in the chat rooms told me it would be", she says, before being pictured scrubbing floors.

In the preview of next week's episode, Zaynab boasts that her husband now ties her to the oven with a longer chain: "I can almost go outside, which is great!" she says happily.

"Not entertainment material"

"The Real Housewives of ISIS" has drawn heavy backlash from people who deemed it insensitive to the plight of oppressed women in ISIS. Many also felt that it portrayed Muslims in a bad light, further blurring the lines between Islam and radical extremism. 

According to Al-Jazeera, Muslim sketch creator Faraz Ali said the BBC skit undermines the suffering of young girls who were lured into ISIS as "a result of dangerous grooming and misguidance".

"Making light of this situation feels inherently wrong, almost capitalizing on the suffering of these young girls who acted without proper insight," he said.

As of June 2015, more than 500 western women had traveled to Syria to join ISIS. The group resorts to deception and emotional manipulation to recruit teens through social media. 

How would the victims of ISIS' crimes feel about this?

Some believe the show reinforces prejudice against Muslims in the West

The "real" housewives of ISIS are raped and abused

After escaping ISIS sex trafficking system, Nadia Murad, who is from the Yazidi minority group, spoke out about the reality of living under ISIS, saying they take "women as merchandise to be exchanged". Murad said she was often raped until she fainted. 

“Some [females] are sold for weapons, or for just $10, or 10 cigarettes," Khider Domle, who has interviewed dozens of women and girls who have fled, told NBC.

Last year, ISIS executed 250 women for refusing to become sex slaves for jihadists.

But others thought differently ...

Of course, many people, including Muslims, viewed the show as purely satirical. Supporters praised the BBC for tackling the issue of online jihad recruitment. 

The program Revolting is hosted by British actor, producer and director Jolyon Rubinstein and British comedian Heydon Prowse. Prowse said, according to Express, “It’s important not to pull your punches in satire. You have to be fearless or it undermines your credibility."

BBC has refused to comment on the controversy.

Arabs mock ISIS too ...

Mocking Daesh is nothing new to the Arab world. Lebanese, Egyptian, Palestinian, Iraqi, Syrian and Jordanian comedians have long resorted to comedy and satire as a means to spite the terrorist group. 

Here’s one of the most viral comedic skits, which shows –in a typical advertising fashion- a woman complaining about the blood stains on her husband’s tunic. A stranger appears out of thin air, handing her a brand detergent named “Da’ek”, which sounds like Daesh. 

“Cleanliness,” “fragrance,” an “explosion,” he says –in reference to his selling points- before they all explode and die.