diff --git a/app/views/layouts/mailer.html.erb b/app/views/layouts/mailer.html.erb
index 0a27fddf..62b825ff 100644
--- a/app/views/layouts/mailer.html.erb
+++ b/app/views/layouts/mailer.html.erb
@@ -3,10 +3,9 @@
   <head>
     <title></title>
     <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
-    <style>
-    </style>
+    <style></style>
   </head>
-  <body dir="<%= yield&.match?(TextUtils::RTL_REGEXP) ? 'rtl' : 'auto' %>">
+  <body dir="<%= TextUtils.rtl?(yield) ? 'rtl' : 'auto' %>">
     <%= yield %>
     <%= render partial: 'shared/mailer_attribution' %>
   </body>
diff --git a/lib/text_utils.rb b/lib/text_utils.rb
index 3e7668c8..8d33f3ef 100644
--- a/lib/text_utils.rb
+++ b/lib/text_utils.rb
@@ -5,6 +5,14 @@ module TextUtils
 
   module_function
 
+  def rtl?(text)
+    return false if text.blank?
+
+    text.match?(TextUtils::RTL_REGEXP)
+  rescue Encoding::CompatibilityError
+    false
+  end
+
   def maybe_rtl_reverse(text)
     if text.match?(RTL_REGEXP)
       TwitterCldr::Shared::Bidi
