When art director-turned-singer Tameem Youness released his new music video, "Salmonella," on YouTube Jan. 1, little did he know he was about to open a Pandora's Box.

The satirical video sparked wide controversy on Egyptian social media networks. Fans hailed it as "creative," "empowering" and "a genius work of art that accurately depicts sexist behavior and attitudes," while critics including women's rights advocates deemed it "harmful" and "inciting violence against women."

Egypt's National Council for Women, the authority overseeing women's issues in the country, was among those that denounced the video as "counterproductive " and "promoting hatred."

"The video violates the country's 2017 Media Code of Ethics, which guarantees respect for people's dignity and criminalizes slander, defamation and racist slurs targeting any group or segment of the population. It also incites sexual harassment and abuse of women, a dangerous phenomenon that should not be joked about," the council said in a statement on Facebook Jan. 6. It urged Google, the owner of YouTube, to remove the controversial video. While it remains uncertain whether Google will heed the call, Facebook has already added a warning to viewers that the video "contains cruel and insensitive content."