diff --git a/AUTHORS.rst b/AUTHORS.rst
index 126e6a7b..f17b336f 100644
--- a/AUTHORS.rst
+++ b/AUTHORS.rst
@@ -30,3 +30,4 @@ Patches and ideas
 * `cido <https://github.com/cido>`_
 * `Justin Bonnar <https://github.com/jargonjustin>`_
 * `Nathan LaFreniere <https://github.com/nlf>`_
+* `Matthias Lehmann <https://github.com/matleh>`
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index a362e622..3346d5e2 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -615,6 +615,10 @@ To skip the host's SSL certificate verification, you can pass ``--verify=no``
 path. The path can also be configured via the environment variable
 ``REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE``.
 
+To use a client side certificate for the SSL communication, you can pass the 
+path of the cert file with ``--cert``. If the private key is not contained
+in the cert file you may pass the path of the key file with ``--certkey``.
+
 
 ==============
 Output Options
@@ -1265,6 +1269,8 @@ Changelog
 *You can click a version name to see a diff with the previous one.*
 
 * `0.9.0-dev`_
+    * Added ``--cert`` and ``--certkey`` parameters to specify a client side
+      certificate and private key for SSL
 * `0.8.0`_ (2014-01-25)
     * Added ``field=@file.txt`` and ``field:=@file.json`` for embedding
       the contents of text and JSON files into request data.
diff --git a/httpie/cli.py b/httpie/cli.py
index 321e452e..13fb158d 100644
--- a/httpie/cli.py
+++ b/httpie/cli.py
@@ -18,7 +18,8 @@ from .input import (Parser, AuthCredentialsArgType, KeyValueArgType,
                     SEP_PROXY, SEP_CREDENTIALS, SEP_GROUP_ALL_ITEMS,
                     OUT_REQ_HEAD, OUT_REQ_BODY, OUT_RESP_HEAD,
                     OUT_RESP_BODY, OUTPUT_OPTIONS, OUTPUT_OPTIONS_DEFAULT,
-                    PRETTY_MAP, PRETTY_STDOUT_TTY_ONLY, SessionNameValidator)
+                    PRETTY_MAP, PRETTY_STDOUT_TTY_ONLY, SessionNameValidator,
+                    readable_file_arg)
 
 
 class HTTPieHelpFormatter(RawDescriptionHelpFormatter):
@@ -465,6 +466,29 @@ network.add_argument(
     """
 )
 
+network.add_argument(
+    '--cert',
+    default=None,
+    type=readable_file_arg,
+    help="""
+    You can specify a local cert to use as client side SSL certificate.
+    This file may either contain both private key and certificate or you may
+    specify --certkey separately.
+
+    """
+)
+
+network.add_argument(
+    '--certkey',
+    default=None,
+    type=readable_file_arg,
+    help="""
+    The private key to use with SSL. Only needed if --cert is given and the
+    certificate file does not contain the private key.
+
+    """
+)
+
 network.add_argument(
     '--timeout',
     type=float,
diff --git a/httpie/client.py b/httpie/client.py
index 5f519515..cccaf4c8 100644
--- a/httpie/client.py
+++ b/httpie/client.py
@@ -73,6 +73,12 @@ def get_requests_kwargs(args):
         auth_plugin = plugin_manager.get_auth_plugin(args.auth_type)()
         credentials = auth_plugin.get_auth(args.auth.key, args.auth.value)
 
+    cert = None
+    if args.cert:
+        cert = args.cert
+        if args.certkey:
+            cert = (cert, args.certkey)
+
     kwargs = {
         'stream': True,
         'method': args.method.lower(),
@@ -83,6 +89,7 @@ def get_requests_kwargs(args):
             'yes': True,
             'no': False
         }.get(args.verify, args.verify),
+        'cert': cert,
         'timeout': args.timeout,
         'auth': credentials,
         'proxies': dict((p.key, p.value) for p in args.proxy),
diff --git a/httpie/input.py b/httpie/input.py
index 3c180129..24269db4 100644
--- a/httpie/input.py
+++ b/httpie/input.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """Parsing and processing of CLI input (args, auth credentials, files, stdin).
 
 """
+import argparse
 import os
 import sys
 import re
@@ -630,3 +631,12 @@ def parse_items(items, data=None, headers=None, files=None, params=None):
         target[item.key] = value
 
     return headers, data, files, params
+
+
+def readable_file_arg(filename):
+    try:
+        open(filename, 'rb')
+    except IOError as ex:
+        raise argparse.ArgumentTypeError(
+            '%s: %s' % (filename, ex.args[1]))
+    return filename
diff --git a/httpie/utils.py b/httpie/utils.py
index fe721c4e..37ac745d 100644
--- a/httpie/utils.py
+++ b/httpie/utils.py
@@ -44,3 +44,4 @@ def humanize_bytes(n, precision=2):
             break
 
     return '%.*f %s' % (precision, n / factor, suffix)
+