diff --git a/Android.mk b/Android.mk
index bc15d5c..08d0c49 100644
--- a/Android.mk
+++ b/Android.mk
@@ -49,7 +49,15 @@
 # of the product
 #LOCAL_CFLAGS += "-DTT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER"
 
+# Freetype can't be built without optimizations, so we enforce -O2 if no
+# other optimization flag is set - but we don't override what the global
+# flags are saying if something else is given (-Os or -O3 are useful)
+ifeq ($(findstring -O, $(TARGET_GLOBAL_CFLAGS)),)
 LOCAL_CFLAGS += -O2
+endif
+ifneq ($(findstring -O0, $(TARGET_GLOBAL_CFLAGS)),)
+LOCAL_CFLAGS += -O2
+endif
 
 LOCAL_MODULE:= libft2