Unicode can be handled in PHP through optional extensions.

Are you sure about Python?

```
Python 2.7.1 (r271:86832, Jul 31 2011, 19:30:53) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Based on Apple Inc. build 5658) (LLVM build 2335.15.00)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> a = 'raﬄe'
>>> print a.upper()
RAﬄE
```

The mb_string extension for PHP does not capitalize 'ra\ufb04' into RAFFLE either.