diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 8bee05191..07fa4d6a3 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -75,6 +75,8 @@ option ( UMFPACK_USE_CHOLMOD "ON (default): use CHOLMOD in UMFPACK.  OFF: do not
 # library takes a long time
 option ( GRAPHBLAS_BUILD_STATIC_LIBS "OFF (default): Do not build static libraries for GraphBLAS project.  ON: Use same value of BUILD_STATIC_LIBS for GraphBLAS like in the other projects" OFF )
 
+option ( SUITESPARSE_PYTHON "ON (default): build Python interfaces for SuiteSparse packages (SPEX).  OFF: do not build Python interfaces for SuiteSparse packages" ON )
+
 # options to build with libraries installed on the system instead of building
 # dependencies automatically
 option ( SUITESPARSE_USE_SYSTEM_BTF "ON: use BTF libraries installed on the build system.  OFF (default): Automatically build BTF as dependency if needed." OFF )
diff --git a/SPEX/CMakeLists.txt b/SPEX/CMakeLists.txt
index b9a3929b9..455a8bcb8 100644
--- a/SPEX/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/SPEX/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -410,8 +410,8 @@ endif ( )
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # python interface
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-if ( BUILD_SHARED_LIBS )
+option ( SPEX_PYTHON "ON (default): build Python interface for SPEX.  OFF: do not build Python interface for SPEX" ${SUITESPARSE_PYTHON} )
+if ( BUILD_SHARED_LIBS AND SPEX_PYTHON)
 
     file ( GLOB SPEX_PYTHON_SOURCES "Python/SPEXpy/Source/*.c" )
     add_library ( spexpython SHARED ${SPEX_PYTHON_SOURCES} )