diff --git a/build_tools/marshal.py b/build_tools/marshal.py
index 18afe2ca52..4a1522f0b8 100644
--- a/build_tools/marshal.py
+++ b/build_tools/marshal.py
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ interpretters, and so the exact same interpretter should be used both to run
 this script, and to read in and execute the marshalled code later.
 """
 
+import locale
 import marshal
 import sys
 import zlib
@@ -65,6 +66,11 @@ if len(sys.argv) < 4:
     print(f"Usage: {sys.argv[0]} CPP PY MODPATH ABSPATH", file=sys.stderr)
     sys.exit(1)
 
+# Set the Python's locale settings manually based on the `LC_CTYPE`
+# environment variable
+if "LC_CTYPE" in os.environ:
+    locale.setlocale(locale.LC_CTYPE, os.environ["LC_CTYPE"])
+
 _, cpp, python, modpath, abspath = sys.argv
 
 with open(python, "r") as f:
diff --git a/site_scons/gem5_scons/defaults.py b/site_scons/gem5_scons/defaults.py
index a07b7ffa4b..996cfd495f 100644
--- a/site_scons/gem5_scons/defaults.py
+++ b/site_scons/gem5_scons/defaults.py
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ def EnvDefaults(env):
             "GEM5PY_LINKFLAGS_EXTRA",
             "LINKFLAGS_EXTRA",
             "LANG",
+            "LC_CTYPE",
         ]
     )