diff --git a/util/aio-win32.c b/util/aio-win32.c
index e7b1d649e92c35136dceb5572b9ad88730b976c0..168717b51bd617aa0233a6025fc9ed1e4a4337c3 100644
--- a/util/aio-win32.c
+++ b/util/aio-win32.c
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 #include "qemu/osdep.h"
 #include "qemu-common.h"
 #include "block/block.h"
+#include "qemu/main-loop.h"
 #include "qemu/queue.h"
 #include "qemu/sockets.h"
 #include "qapi/error.h"
@@ -333,8 +334,13 @@ bool aio_poll(AioContext *ctx, bool blocking)
      * There cannot be two concurrent aio_poll calls for the same AioContext (or
      * an aio_poll concurrent with a GSource prepare/check/dispatch callback).
      * We rely on this below to avoid slow locked accesses to ctx->notify_me.
+     *
+     * aio_poll() may only be called in the AioContext's thread. iohandler_ctx
+     * is special in that it runs in the main thread, but that thread's context
+     * is qemu_aio_context.
      */
-    assert(in_aio_context_home_thread(ctx));
+    assert(in_aio_context_home_thread(ctx == iohandler_get_aio_context() ?
+                                      qemu_get_aio_context() : ctx));
     progress = false;
 
     /* aio_notify can avoid the expensive event_notifier_set if