diff -r ccd653a54263 -r 95feee1af1da whois/__init__.py
--- a/whois/__init__.py	Fri Jan 20 15:25:04 2017 +0800
+++ b/whois/__init__.py	Fri Jan 20 15:33:38 2017 +0800
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 from .whois import NICClient
 
 
+
 def whois(url, command=False):
     # clean domain to expose netloc
     ip_match = re.match(r"^\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}$", url)
@@ -34,7 +35,7 @@
     else:
         # try builtin client
         nic_client = NICClient()
-        text = nic_client.whois_lookup(None, domain, 0)
+        text = nic_client.whois_lookup(None, domain.encode('idna'), 0)
     return WhoisEntry.load(domain, text)