Woman recalls parents refusing LSR admission despite merit: ‘Fear still gets the final say’

A woman has shared how her parents once refused to let her attend Delhi’s Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR), despite her securing admission on merit, because they were concerned about her safety. She said the decision left her devastated at the time, but recent events near the college have made her reconsider her parents’ fears.

In a post on LinkedIn, the woman recalled crying “SO badly” when her parents told her she could not attend LSR, describing it as one of the worst days of her life.

She said she had been a merit holder and had worked for years to earn a place at what she described as one of the country’s most prestigious colleges. For her, getting into LSR represented the outcome of years spent doing what she believed were the “right” things.


“I was a merit holder and I had done everything right to earn a seat in one of the most prestigious colleges in the country. For me, it wasn’t just a college, it was something I had genuinely worked for,” she wrote.

‘My parents still said no’

The woman said she had largely stayed away from social media until Class 12 and described her life as being focused on academics rather than distractions.

“My world revolved around marks and the hope that it would all lead me somewhere I wouldn’t regret later,” she wrote.

She said her admission to LSR therefore felt like the reward for years of hard work. However, her parents remained opposed to the move.

“They told me the world is not as safe as I think it is and that I am not prepared to deal with it alone,” she wrote.

At the time, she said, the decision felt unfair because she believed her achievements were being overshadowed by her parents’ fears. She added that she spent a long time believing they had made the wrong decision.

Recent events changed how she viewed their fears

The woman said that seeing reports and discussions about what happened near LSR had made her reconsider her earlier view of her parents’ concerns.

“Today, when my entire feed is filled with what happened near LSR, I’m not so sure anymore,” she wrote, adding that the fear her parents had expressed no longer seemed irrational to her.

She then questioned whether restricting women’s access to public spaces was the appropriate response to incidents involving sexual violence.

“Every time something this horrific happens, why is the response to CONTROL ACCESS of women instead of fixing the system?” she wrote.

Referring to the reported sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl in a public park, she questioned whether measures such as restricting entry after sunset addressed the underlying safety concerns. She argued that stronger surveillance, accountability and visible enforcement should instead be considered.

‘We keep redesigning women’s lives around danger’

The woman said women are repeatedly given advice such as not going out late, avoiding certain places or not being alone, arguing that such restrictions can gradually shape the way women live their lives.

“We keep redesigning women’s lives around danger instead of eliminating the danger itself,” she wrote.

She connected the issue to her own experience, asking what merit and hard work mean if a student can earn admission to a prestigious institution but still has to give up the opportunity because her parents believe the surrounding environment is unsafe.

“What is the point of merit and doing everything ‘right’ if, at the end of it, fear still gets the final say?” she wrote.

She further argued that women may not always be explicitly denied opportunities, but that unsafe environments can lead them to give up those opportunities themselves.

“We don’t deny women opportunities directly anymore. We just make the world so unsafe that they GIVE THEM UP on their own,” she wrote.

Concluding her post, she said the issue was not limited to one college or one city, but concerned how women’s opportunities and freedom can be narrowed even after they have worked to expand them.

“It is about how easily a woman’s world can be REDUCED, even after she has done everything to expand it,” she wrote.