diff --git a/src/parallel b/src/parallel
index f0ad1aa8..c0e1ca4d 100755
--- a/src/parallel
+++ b/src/parallel
@@ -860,10 +860,9 @@ sub read_options {
         # Program is called from #! line in script
         $ARGV[0]=~s/^--shebang *//; # remove --shebang if it is set
         $ARGV[0]=~s/^--hashbang *//; # remove --hashbang if it is set
-        my $argfile = pop @ARGV;
+        my $argfile = shell_quote_scalar(pop @ARGV);
         # exec myself to split $ARGV[0] into separate fields
 	exec "$0 --skip-first-line -a $argfile @ARGV";
-        #exec "tail -n +1 $argfile | $0 @ARGV";
     }
 
     Getopt::Long::Configure("bundling","pass_through");
diff --git a/testsuite/tests-to-run/parallel-local20.sh b/testsuite/tests-to-run/parallel-local20.sh
index 913a5024..f2fe6576 100644
--- a/testsuite/tests-to-run/parallel-local20.sh
+++ b/testsuite/tests-to-run/parallel-local20.sh
@@ -21,14 +21,14 @@ chmod 755 /tmp/shebang
 /tmp/shebang
 
 echo '### Test of #! with 2 files as input (2 columns)'
-cat >/tmp/shebang <<EOF
+cat >'/tmp/she <bang>"' <<EOF
 #!/usr/local/bin/parallel --shebang -rk --xapply -a /tmp/123 echo
 A
 B
 C
 EOF
-chmod 755 /tmp/shebang
+chmod 755 '/tmp/she <bang>"'
 seq 1 3 >/tmp/123
-/tmp/shebang
+'/tmp/she <bang>"'
 echo '### bug #36595: silent loss of input with --pipe and --sshlogin'
 seq 10000 | xargs | parallel --pipe -S 10/localhost cat | wc