My dad is claiming that my decision is wrong just because I think it's okay men to hit a woman in a TAE KWON DO TOURNAMENT. I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this, but am I wrong for thinking this?

My dad was sharing a story how my cousin was in this big Tae Kwon Do tournament. Long story short, my cousin (a male) was up against a female. He didn't want to fight her. He just defended himself until the female took the opportunity he left open to land a hit on him. He fell and then the officials called the match there since my cousin didn't want to get up.

I told my dad that since it was a TAE KWON DO tournament, it was okay for my cousin to fight the female and land some hits; however, my dad said "You better be carefully with your decisions, regret always comes last. You really don't care. Men are always stronger than women. How would you feel if that was your daughter that was severely beaten in a tournament. You are really not supposed to do that to women". Then he proceeded to tell me a story about a international Tae Kwon Do tournament where one contestant killed his opponent by accident.

I think that the only time a man should hit a woman is in a Tae Kwon Do tournament, taking down a female criminal (that is not pregnant) and in self defense. I do not believe in special rights for either gender. I believe women these days are equally as strong as men. I am against abuse, regardless of gender, race, and etc. Is there something wrong when I said it was okay for a man to hit a woman in a Tae Kwon Do tournament?

EDIT: Thank you all for the responses. My dad is not a bad person, but just an old school thinker. I try to keep an open mind. Some good points that were brought up are:

1. Women do not shatter easily

2. What if your daughter faced an even bigger and stronger woman vs. a scrawny male?

3. Not putting up a fight in a tournament not only disrespects the opponent, but the tournament and the martial arts themselves.

I wish I was as smart and sharp as everyone here. I also wish I the the debate skills of a Redditor :)

EDIT 2: It's a good thing TheyCalledMeMad called me out on my wording of this post. I am going to re-post my reply to her here as well.:

I believe that the individual is entitle to protect him or herself by self defense. If he or she is the aggressor, then they deserve what they got coming to them when their victim decided to use self defense. As for the Tae Kwon Do thing, the individuals need to display their skill to their full extent and power in a respectful manner to their opponents.

EDIT 3: I like the response and discussions we are having here. Keep them coming, but one thing I forgot to add was that this was back in the Philippines and that they did not use pads back then, just a helmet.