Had Ellen Young ever been treated unfairly?
No, but she had encountered danger.
At the beginning, she was just too smart, intelligent to a point where she didn't fit in with others.
Her research was also in a rare field in Sina, an astoundingly brilliant person that the country wanted to exist, yet there were those who wished she would disappear.
She had been protected since she was a child, but she couldn't avoid contact with people, and later, due to a momentary lapse in vigilance, a brainwashed religious fanatic student approached her under the guise of seeking advice and managed to bring a small knife.
Her protection was already very strict, with security guards monitoring nearby at all times.
So bringing a large knife, a gun, or bombs and such was unrealistic, but a small knife, if used well, could also take a life.