diff --git a/textile/functions.py b/textile/functions.py
index fd79faf..c4676ee 100644
--- a/textile/functions.py
+++ b/textile/functions.py
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@
 import re
 import uuid
 import string
-from urlparse import urlparse
+import urlparse
+import urllib
 
 from textile.tools import sanitizer, imagesize
 
@@ -673,7 +674,7 @@ def isRelURL(self, url):
         True
 
         """
-        (scheme, netloc) = urlparse(url)[0:2]
+        (scheme, netloc) = urlparse.urlparse(url)[0:2]
         return not scheme and not netloc
 
     def relURL(self, url):
@@ -686,7 +687,7 @@ def relURL(self, url):
         '#'
 
         """
-        scheme = urlparse(url)[0]
+        scheme = urlparse.urlparse(url)[0]
         if self.restricted and scheme and scheme not in self.url_schemes:
             return '#'
         return url
@@ -801,6 +802,7 @@ def fLink(self, match):
             url = url[:-1]
 
         url = self.checkRefs(url)
+        url = self.encode_url(url)
 
         atts = self.pba(atts)
         if title:
@@ -818,6 +820,54 @@ def fLink(self, match):
         out = self.shelve(out)
         return ''.join([pre, out, post])
 
+    def encode_url(self, url):
+        """
+        Converts a (unicode) URL to an ASCII URL, with the domain part
+        IDNA-encoded and the path part %-encoded (as per RFC 3986).
+
+        Fixed version of the following code fragment from Stack Overflow:
+        http://stackoverflow.com/questions/804336/best-way-to-convert-a-unicode-url-to-ascii-utf-8-percent-escaped-in-python/804380#804380
+        """
+        # turn string into unicode
+        if not isinstance(url, unicode):
+            url = url.decode('utf8')
+
+        # parse it
+        parsed = urlparse.urlsplit(url)
+
+        # divide the netloc further
+        netloc_pattern = re.compile(r"""
+            (?:(?P<user>[^:@]+)(?::(?P<password>[^:@]+))?@)?
+            (?P<host>[^:]+)
+            (?::(?P<port>[0-9]+))?
+        """, re.X | re.U)
+        netloc_parsed = netloc_pattern.match(parsed.netloc).groupdict()
+
+        # encode each component
+        scheme = parsed.scheme.encode('utf8')
+        user = netloc_parsed['user'] and urllib.quote(netloc_parsed['user'].encode('utf8'))
+        password = netloc_parsed['password'] and urllib.quote(netloc_parsed['password'].encode('utf8'))
+        host = netloc_parsed['host'].encode('idna')
+        port = netloc_parsed['port'] and netloc_parsed['port'].encode('utf8')
+        path = '/'.join(  # could be encoded slashes!
+            urllib.quote(urllib.unquote(pce).encode('utf8'),'')
+            for pce in parsed.path.split('/')
+        )
+        query = urllib.quote(urllib.unquote(parsed.query).encode('utf8'), '=&?/')
+        fragment = urllib.quote(urllib.unquote(parsed.fragment).encode('utf8'))
+
+        # put it back together
+        netloc = ''
+        if user:
+            netloc += user
+            if password:
+                netloc += '@'+password
+            netloc += ':'
+        netloc += host
+        if port:
+            netloc += ':'+port
+        return urlparse.urlunsplit((scheme, netloc, path, query, fragment))
+
     def span(self, text):
         """
         >>> t = Textile()