diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/cairo/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/cairo/default.nix
index a761b8bd3f2..38dfceb2e00 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/cairo/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/cairo/default.nix
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     # `-I' flags to be propagated.
     sed -i "src/cairo.pc.in" \
         -es'|^Cflags:\(.*\)$|Cflags: \1 -I${freetype.dev}/include/freetype2 -I${freetype.dev}/include|g'
+    substituteInPlace configure --replace strings $STRINGS
     '';
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;