diff --git a/roles/pagure/upstreamfirst-frontend/templates/0_pagure.conf b/roles/pagure/upstreamfirst-frontend/templates/0_pagure.conf
index 5398bb1271..dc1dbefb4b 100644
--- a/roles/pagure/upstreamfirst-frontend/templates/0_pagure.conf
+++ b/roles/pagure/upstreamfirst-frontend/templates/0_pagure.conf
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ WSGIDaemonProcess paguredocs user=git group=git maximum-requests=1000 display-na
     /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/$1
 
   # Configure static files so that a custom theme can override the defaults
+  RewriteEngine on
 
   RewriteCond "{{ pagure_theme_static_dir }}/$1" -f
   RewriteRule "^/static/(.*)" "{{ pagure_theme_static_dir }}/$1" [L]
@@ -128,6 +129,7 @@ WSGIDaemonProcess paguredocs user=git group=git maximum-requests=1000 display-na
   SSLProtocol ALL -SSLv2
 
   # Configure static files so that a custom theme can override the defaults
+  RewriteEngine on
 
   RewriteCond "{{ pagure_theme_static_dir }}/$1" -f
   RewriteRule "^/static/(.*)" "{{ pagure_theme_static_dir }}/$1" [L]