diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 6ad0bc35..b9588ebd 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ packages = [
 requires = []
 test_requirements = ['pytest>=2.8.0', 'pytest-httpbin==0.0.7', 'pytest-cov', 'pytest-mock']
 
-with open('requests/__init__.py', 'r') as fd:
+with open('requests/__init__.py', 'r', 'utf-8') as fd:
     version = re.search(r'^__version__\s*=\s*[\'"]([^\'"]*)[\'"]',
                         fd.read(), re.MULTILINE).group(1)