diff --git a/sleekxmpp/util/__init__.py b/sleekxmpp/util/__init__.py
index 957a9335..05286d33 100644
--- a/sleekxmpp/util/__init__.py
+++ b/sleekxmpp/util/__init__.py
@@ -11,7 +11,8 @@
 
 
 from sleekxmpp.util.misc_ops import bytes, unicode, hashes, hash, \
-                                    num_to_bytes, bytes_to_num, quote, XOR
+                                    num_to_bytes, bytes_to_num, quote, \
+                                    XOR, safedict
 
 
 # =====================================================================
diff --git a/sleekxmpp/util/misc_ops.py b/sleekxmpp/util/misc_ops.py
index c2533eec..18c919a8 100644
--- a/sleekxmpp/util/misc_ops.py
+++ b/sleekxmpp/util/misc_ops.py
@@ -129,6 +129,7 @@ def hashes():
     hashes = ['SHA-' + h[3:] for h in dir(hashlib) if h.startswith('sha')]
     return t + hashes
 
+
 def setdefaultencoding(encoding):
     """
     Set the current default string encoding used by the Unicode implementation.
@@ -152,3 +153,13 @@ def setdefaultencoding(encoding):
             raise RuntimeError("Could not find setdefaultencoding")
         sys.setdefaultencoding = func
     return func(encoding)
+
+
+def safedict(data):
+    if sys.version_info < (2, 7):
+        safe = {}
+        for key in data:
+            safe[key.encode('utf8')] = data[key]
+        return safe
+    else:
+        return data
diff --git a/sleekxmpp/xmlstream/xmlstream.py b/sleekxmpp/xmlstream/xmlstream.py
index c5c9fe38..66985f3d 100644
--- a/sleekxmpp/xmlstream/xmlstream.py
+++ b/sleekxmpp/xmlstream/xmlstream.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ import errno
 from xml.parsers.expat import ExpatError
 
 import sleekxmpp
-from sleekxmpp.util import Queue, QueueEmpty
+from sleekxmpp.util import Queue, QueueEmpty, safedict
 from sleekxmpp.thirdparty.statemachine import StateMachine
 from sleekxmpp.xmlstream import Scheduler, tostring, cert
 from sleekxmpp.xmlstream.stanzabase import StanzaBase, ET, ElementBase
@@ -518,13 +518,13 @@ class XMLStream(object):
             else:
                 cert_policy = ssl.CERT_REQUIRED
 
-            ssl_args = {
-                b'certfile': self.certfile,
-                b'keyfile': self.keyfile,
-                b'ca_certs': self.ca_certs,
-                b'cert_reqs': cert_policy,
-                b'do_handshake_on_connect': False,
-            }
+            ssl_args = safedict({
+                'certfile': self.certfile,
+                'keyfile': self.keyfile,
+                'ca_certs': self.ca_certs,
+                'cert_reqs': cert_policy,
+                'do_handshake_on_connect': False
+            })
 
             if sys.version_info >= (2, 7):
                 ssl_args['ciphers'] = self.ciphers
@@ -842,13 +842,13 @@ class XMLStream(object):
         else:
             cert_policy = ssl.CERT_REQUIRED
 
-        ssl_args = {
-            b'certfile': self.certfile,
-            b'keyfile': self.keyfile,
-            b'ca_certs': self.ca_certs,
-            b'cert_reqs': cert_policy,
-            b'do_handshake_on_connect': False,
-        }
+        ssl_args = safedict({
+            'certfile': self.certfile,
+            'keyfile': self.keyfile,
+            'ca_certs': self.ca_certs,
+            'cert_reqs': cert_policy,
+            'do_handshake_on_connect': False
+        })
 
         if sys.version_info >= (2, 7):
             ssl_args['ciphers'] = self.ciphers