diff --git a/packages/lang/Python/build b/packages/lang/Python/build
index 7a7ef1681e..bd3b4df29f 100755
--- a/packages/lang/Python/build
+++ b/packages/lang/Python/build
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ OPT="$HOST_CFLAGS" \
 ./configure --prefix=$ROOT/$TOOLCHAIN \
             --without-cxx-main \
             --with-threads \
+            --enable-unicode=ucs4 \
 
 OPT="$HOST_CFLAGS" \
 make python Parser/pgen