diff --git a/git-send-email.perl b/git-send-email.perl
index 2b1f1b598c62ddaed693635adef12e490f49838f..b03297c9d7ed40f39b9f805c08bf9c2f17bb7379 100755
--- a/git-send-email.perl
+++ b/git-send-email.perl
@@ -711,7 +711,8 @@ sub send_message
 			else {
 				push @xh,
 				  'MIME-Version: 1.0',
-				  "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=$author_encoding";
+				  "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=$author_encoding",
+				  'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit';
 			}
 		}
 	}