Dad lets daughter die, rather than be touched by 'strange' rescuer

[Esquilax]

Why wasn't he jumping in?

Because these fucking purity culture ideals, and the whackjobs that hold them, are entirely reductive. Like any conservative, religiously based ideals, they exist only to digest other people, to poke and prod and nitpick and reduce everyone until they fit in a small enough box that their simple-minded adherents no longer feel threatened that complexity exists.

So of course his first act was to obstruct positive forward progress; his beliefs have trained him to begin every scenario by acting out negatively in defense of his values. It's more important that things fit into the box, his daughter was (clearly!) more valuable for how her intact honor reflected upon him than as a person. When all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail, and these ass backwards honor culture ideas give you exactly one reaction to work with: "Stop people from even thinking differently to you, no matter the cost."