diff --git a/pythonforandroid/recipes/openssl/__init__.py b/pythonforandroid/recipes/openssl/__init__.py
index c80ee6ae6a..dd85d4ddd1 100644
--- a/pythonforandroid/recipes/openssl/__init__.py
+++ b/pythonforandroid/recipes/openssl/__init__.py
@@ -1,15 +1,32 @@
 from functools import partial
-
-from pythonforandroid.toolchain import Recipe, shprint, current_directory
+from pythonforandroid.toolchain import Recipe, current_directory
+from pythonforandroid.logger import shprint
+from os.path import join, exists
 import sh
 
-
 class OpenSSLRecipe(Recipe):
     version = '1.0.2g'
     url = 'https://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-{version}.tar.gz'
+    force_shared = False
+
+    @property
+    def build_static(self):
+        if self.force_shared:
+            return False
+        return True if 'python2' in self.ctx.recipe_build_order else False
+
+    @property
+    def libssl(self):
+        return 'libssl.a' if self.build_static else 'libssl.so'
+
+    @property
+    def libcrypto(self):
+        return 'libcrypto.a' if self.build_static else 'libcrypto.so'
 
     def should_build(self, arch):
-        return not self.has_libs(arch, 'libssl.so', 'libcrypto.so')
+        if exists(join(self.get_build_dir(arch.arch), self.libssl)):
+            return False
+        return True
 
     def check_symbol(self, env, sofile, symbol):
         nm = env.get('NM', 'nm')
@@ -43,17 +60,33 @@ def build_arch(self, arch):
             # so instead we manually run perl passing in Configure
             perl = sh.Command('perl')
             buildarch = self.select_build_arch(arch)
-            shprint(perl, 'Configure', 'shared', 'no-dso', 'no-krb5', buildarch, _env=env)
+
+            # NOTE: Disabled the build of shared libraries to prevent anything to be
+            # linked against them by mistake. It's better to build the openssl libs as
+            # static because this way we avoid conflicts with the openssl libs
+            # distributed with android system. You can force the build of shared libs
+            # setting the variable 'force_shared' to True, but probably,
+            # your app will not be able to use the compiled openssl libraries because
+            # when the app loads them, first will use the system ones,instead of the compiled
+            if self.build_static:
+                shprint(perl, 'Configure', 'no-dso', 'no-krb5', buildarch, _env=env)
+            else:
+                shprint(perl, 'Configure', 'shared', 'no-dso', 'no-krb5', buildarch, _env=env)
+
             self.apply_patch('disable-sover.patch', arch.arch)
 
-            check_crypto = partial(self.check_symbol, env, 'libcrypto.so')
-            # check_ssl = partial(self.check_symbol, env, 'libssl.so')
+            check_crypto = partial(self.check_symbol, env, self.libcrypto)
+            # check_ssl = partial(self.check_symbol, env, self.libssl)
             while True:
                 shprint(sh.make, 'build_libs', _env=env)
                 if all(map(check_crypto, ('SSLeay', 'MD5_Transform', 'MD4_Init'))):
                     break
                 shprint(sh.make, 'clean', _env=env)
 
-            self.install_libs(arch, 'libssl.so', 'libcrypto.so')
+            if exists('libssl.so') and not self.build_static:
+                self.install_libs(arch, 'libssl.so', 'libcrypto.so')
+            else:
+                shprint(sh.cp, 'libssl.a', self.ctx.libs_dir)
+                shprint(sh.cp, 'libcrypto.a', self.ctx.libs_dir)
 
 recipe = OpenSSLRecipe()