Zainab Bahrani (Arabic: زينب البحراني; born 29 August 1962) is an Iraqi Assyriologist and is Edith Porada Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology at Columbia University.

Her book The Graven Image demonstrated "a complete overturning of Eurocentric representations of the cultural and artistic legacies of ancient Assyria and Babylonia".

[4] On May 25, 2004, Bahrani was appointed to work with the Coalition Provisional Authority as Senior Consultant for Culture.

[9] In reviewing The Graven Image archaeologist Jeremy Tanner described how Bahrani's book demonstrated "a complete overturning of Eurocentric representations of the cultural and artistic legacies of ancient Assyria and Babylonia", compounding the notion that the idea of 'Mesopotamia' itself is a colonial product.

[10] Bahrani's book The Ritual Body was reviewed by Carolyn Nakamura, who described it as "an illuminating and theoretically rich consideration of Assyro-Babylonian war and violence".