KARACHI, Pakistan — It was a weekday afternoon in an upscale neighborhood of Karachi, but the hall was packed for the lecture on Islam and marriage.

Laughter burst forth as the speaker asked how husbands change over the years.

They’re terrible listeners, one woman said. Inattentive, offered another. Other women, apparently without husbands, offered more charitable attributes: They’re rational, and able to take risks.

“I was expecting the unmarried lot would have more unrealistic expectations for men,” the speaker said to more laughter.

Most religious events in Karachi are dominated by men and addressed by older, often-virulent clerics, but the participants at this recent lecture were all women. Drawn largely from the city’s affluent neighborhoods, they sat in rapt attention, dressed in bright patterned tunics, listening to the lecturer, Sara Asif, instruct them on Islamic strictures.